Gods' Game
by Mina'sMadness
Summary: This is truly the worst day of my life! I flunk a test, I find my boyfriend cheating on me and then I freaking DIE! And I can't even die in peace. Nooo! Some crazy God just had to send me into this strange ninja world. Now tell me, can this get any worse?
1. Worst day ever

Hey there! That's the first chapter of the second story I wrote. I hope you like it. Even thought this is a Naruto fanfic there's nothing about Naruto in this chapter. I hope you don't mind that. If you do, just see it as a prologue.

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Gods' Game

Chapter 1: Worst day ever!

You know this? There are these days when everything goes wrong. The alarm clock broke, you miss the bus, the sun was shining friendly when just a moment later it's pouring like crazy and you don't have an umbrella with you, you boyfriend throws a party tonight and your favorite blouse in the wash… Yep, that's the day I'm talking about. And of course all this just had to happen to me today. I'd say this is the worst day in my 13 years of life. At least it can't get any worse. Right?

"Nicole! Samantha's here!" my mother shouted from downstairs. I didn't really pay attention and kept trying on different tops, skirts and pants. I hate choosing the right outfit. I never find anything that fits!

"Nicci~!" Sam squealed as she slammed open the door to my room.

"Sa~m!" I yelled back as my friend tackle hugged me to the ground. She then sat up – mind, still sitting on me – and analyzed my current outfit: A miniskirt and a strapless top.

"You really look slutty like this, you know?"

Frustrated I shoved my friend off me and threw my top into a corner of my room.

"I don't know what to do. My favorite blouse is in the wash, my hair's a mess and the whole day was a complete disaster. Sam, save me!" I whined while my best friend sat on my bed and went through a pile of clothes that had formed on the edge of the bed.

"Oh and don't forget that flunked test you got back today."

"Don't remind me of THAT!" I cried out while falling onto the bed next to her. She then pulled a few pieces of clothing out of the mountain of clothes.

"Here try that on." She tossed the articles to me. I put it on and observed me at the mirror on the wall. I was wearing slim jeans, a red tunic top and a black hoodie jacket. It looked good but I found it a bit too… casual.

"You really think that's okay? We're going to a party, not to school." Normally I completely trust Sam in this matter. If it's about clothes, she always finds the perfect outfit to fit in the crowd and stand out at the same time. But this time I wasn't so sure about her choice.

"But it's a house party not some club. Trust me, I have a feeling it's better to hold back a bit today. Look, I'm the same." She said and pointed down on herself. She wore a tank top, over it a t-shirt that bared one of her shoulders, ripped jeans, many wristbands and a neckband. It looked really good with her short blond spiky hair and her sapphire-colored eyes.

I gave in and agreed with her. Maybe she's right that we should be a bit more decent today.

About jewelry, I put on the silver necklace my boyfriend, Jake, gave me for our three-monthly anniversary. My dark brown hair was put in a ponytail and Sam made curls in my bangs.

I guess you could say I looked cute, cute but also pretty average. In moments like these I often envied Sam. She was a natural beauty. No matter what she wears, it always looks beautiful on her. If she was to wear a potato sack one day, the next day everyone would do the same, thinking it was the latest fashion.

But in spite of her beauty she still had no boyfriend. If they did't like her for some unknown reason or if she simply didn't want one, I don't know. But at this point I'm pretty happy to be me. Jake, who is two years older than me, and I are dating for over 5 months now and we're still in love like on the first day. It's simply perfect. That reminds me…

"Hey, Sam. This time we really have to find you a boyfriend. I think Stephen likes you." I said happily hopping on the bed next to her.

"A boyfriend? No, thank you. I have my hands full even without one. And I think that the one he likes is _you_ not _me._" she replied chuckling.

"No way, never ever would that be possible. He's my best friend since childhood. Well, best _male_ friend to be exact."

"Think what you want." She shrugged it off and jumped on the floor.

"I think we should get going now or we'll be late."

With that we put on some sneakers and after waving goodbye to my mom – she's pretty thorough with her rituals, saying it's for preserving peace at home – we went on our way to Jake's house. We're living on the countryside and there are not many things to do on weekends if you're only 13 like me and Sam. So most of the time we go to one of Jake's legendary house parties. Why they are so legendary? Well, since this is the countryside there are many old people who grudge us the little fun we can get and call the police because of noise nuisance or something. But since Jake's parents own a successful company and have much influence and money nobody dares to complain when he throws a party. Another reason was that his parents were very often on business trips and left the house in his care – his and the cleaner's.

After 20 minutes of walking we finally arrived at his house. There were already many people. When we walked up the driveway we found Mike and Stephen, classmates of Jake, hanging around the entrance and talking to the people coming and going.

"Hey guys, 'sup?" Sam greeted them.

"Hey Sam, Nicci. You're late. About 30 people are already here. Chris's brother got us 4 crates of beer and a few bottles of booze." Mike reported and we started grinning. Chris's brother is the best!

"Then what are you two doing out here?"

"Waiting for the pizza guy. Fist come first served." That's right, if there's pizza you have to be quick because not even the crumbs remain!

"Oh and Nicci. Little princess also came and already turned the spotlight on herself. But you already guessed that much, didn't ya?" Stephen told me as we were about to walk in. I frowned. The little princess was Candy, a blond 14 year old slut that boasted with the money of her parents and that her mother would get her a job as a model as soon as she turned 16. She was arrogant, haughty and fucked every guy that had money, status and wasn't too nasty. With her 14 years of age mind you! She even tried to snatch my boyfriend away so my relationship with her isn't the best. Okay, okay, I hate her and hope she gets syphilis, gonorrhea or other comparable diseases. And of course as we entered the living room we found her sitting on the couch with a really short mini dress – that was actually a top – and surrounded by a group of guys. Nice lace panties she has there. Slut. Why did she have to show up here? Now my day got even worse! But not everything was this bad today. For example Jake who snuck up on me from behind and pecked my neck, what made me jump out of surprise.

"Hey, sweety." I pecked him on the lips and he handed Sam and me a bottle of beer.

"You know if the pizza's here?"

"Mike and Stephen are still waiting for it."

"Oh, then we still have time." Jake grinned and pulled me into a kiss, his hands draped around my waist.

"Oh look. People. I'll go and chat with them. Have fun." Sam waved and went away leaving me and Jake standing in the entrance to the living room. Still in a kiss I let him guide me to the nearest room which was apparently his father's office. He heaved me on the desk and his hands started wandering over my shirt. Don't get me wrong, we didn't do it yet – he keeps pestering though. But I want to do it on our 6-monthly anniversary. He was tugging on the hem of my shirt and his hands wandered up my naked skin. Just as I wanted to say something the door got smashed open and Chris came in with some friends.

"Pizza's here!" he told us while holding onto the door frame to stand upright. He then went away with his roaring friends.

"Let's go before there's nothing left." I said and skipped to the door. Jake seemed a bit disappointed but followed after me.

4 pizzas and many bottles of beer later the first guys were sleeping under the table. I was sitting on the couch together with Stephen and like always when I was drunk I started to observe my surroundings without missing a thing. Stephen, as the only sober one, was tattling with me about everything and anything.

"The guys are starting a drinking contest again."

"Marc and Cloey are making out. Did he finally confess to her?"

"Naah. She's just completely drunk and he happened to be next to her."

"Poor Marc. How long has it been since he fell in love with her?"

"2 years I'd say. Oh look, Candy's in the back garden."

"Puking again? Look at her hair, it's full of vomit."

"Okay, that's gross." Stephen grimaced. Some would find it strange if a guy like Stephen – tall, athletic, smart – is tattling like a girl, but in my opinion that's one of his strong points. No matter what, he always stays true to himself and I can always rely on him. His father was a drinker and used hit his mother. As he started to hit him as well, they left him and moved to the house next to mine. His mother was working the whole day and he did the housework in her place. He also never even touched a drop of alcohol. He had a hard time but thanks to this he became a really reliable person and my best (male) friend. That reminds me…

"Stephen, you know where Sam went?"

"I believe I saw her upstairs."

"'Kay, thanks." I practically flew up the stairs looking forward to tell my best friend about Candy. There I stood in an empty hallway. Okay, either I shout loud enough for Sam to hear or I simply search every room. Given that no one would hear me through all the yelling and the loud music, I had to do it the more tiring way.

Opening one door after another I found many petting couples but no Sam. With the last door in the corridor in front of me I started to think that she was already somewhere else. Already thinking about where to search next I opened the door and stopped dead in my tracks. My mouth open and with widened eyes I stared at the sight that took place in front of me. Sam was lying with her back on the bed, her legs draped around Jake's hips as he kissed her passionately. When she noticed me she stared at me with an expression of shock and horror. Jake followed her gaze and his face bleached.

"Nicci."

"And I thought we were best friends." I whispered tears burning in my eyes.

"No Nicci, wait, I-", Sam stuttered and shoved the still shocked boy off her. Not waiting for her lame excuses I turned and I ran down the stairs tears flowing down my cheeks. What excuse could she have that sounded believable enough? Sorry but your boyfriend tripped and fell right on my lips? Downstairs was Stephen who looked surprised and asked what happened but I just pushed him aside dashing out. Behind me I could hear him asking Sam the same, but I didn't care. Should she explain it to him. I just kept running down the street. The tears burned in my eyes and my vision got blurry. This was really the worst day of my life, it couldn't get any worse! At least that's what I thought. As I paused in the middle of the street to wipe away the tears, I heard a loud honk and bright light blinded my eyes before an enormous force hit me and I dashed against something hard. I could hear someone shouting my name then the yelling got fuzzy and everything went blank. Okay, now's officially and absolutely the worst day of my life!

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Like it? Hate it? Just tell me! About this 13-year-old-thing, I just couldn't make her older to fit the story line. You'll understand as the story goes on. If you think it's unrealistic for kids like that age to behave like this, let me tell you, I get to see this quite often (except for the car; instead they fall into a river and drown or something… not funny…). Okay, enough depressing talk! Please review, compliments or complaints, I don't care. If you found any mistakes feel free to tell me, I'll fix it as soon as I can!


	2. Even Gods can get bored

Hey there! Finally here's chapter 2 after a veeery long time. Nothing to be proud of, I know… Well, at least I finally updated.

Thanks to jpbrat01, NarutardKerry and glitterthorn for your lovely reviews. Luv you guys! ^-^

Nope still no Naruto World, you'll have to wait for next chapter for that… Hopefully it won't take that long this time…

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**Gods' Game**

Chapter 2: Even Gods can get bored

I was walking through some sort of fog. Not knowing where I was or what happened I wandered aimlessly through this fog, my mind completely blank and my body feeling strangely numb. Slowly I regained my senses and was finally able to come to a halt to sort my thoughts.

Let's see. First question: Where the heck am I? I looked around me and saw white. In front of me white. Behind me white. Over me white. Under me white with the exception that this strange white fog covered the ground. If there even was a ground. Seriously I could what on air for all I knew and for what it felt like! Back to topic. Seems like I am stuck in some strange infinite dimension of complete whiteness. Great. If I now have to endlessly wander around in this fog I'm definitely going to die from boredom.

Wait! Die, die… that rings a bell… Die, dead, death, accident… Accident! Now I remember. There was this car and it… Oh shit. That means I died in this car accident. Which ultimately means I'm dead. But I can't be dead. That's simply not possible. I'm too young to die. And I didn't even have my first time with Jake yet!

Oh, yeah, Jake… So much to question two, what happened. That damn slut of a fake best friend, Sam! She dared to make out with my boyfriend! I'll never forgive her that. That's what I get for trusting her.

Clenching my fists I kicked at the fog to vent my anger but it didn't help much. I screamed out my frustration and tears started rolling down my cheeks. Why do these kind of things always happen to me? My boyfriend cheating on me with my best friend, to whom I'd even entrust my own life, then getting hit by a car… And now being stuck in some white space which appears to be the netherworld and doomed to forever wander through this fog without getting the chance to haunt that bitch Sam as a terrifying ghost. Could it probably get any worse?

In front of me in the midst of nothing was a door appearing in the fog. Well not exactly a door. There was light shining through a crack from what exactly looked like a door crack. Suspicious about it I walked up to the invisible door and through the now opened frame. Behind it was still nothing but white. Maybe this was the door to heaven and if I walked through it a wonderful garden would appear in front of me. But with my luck it'd be probably hell behind it fooling me with this soothing light. Well, everything is better than this boredom in white. So without further ado I grabbed this chance and walked through the door just to find in front of me… another space of whiteness. Great. Back to the beginning.

Just as I disappointedly wanted to turn around and walk back, I literally lost the ground under my feet, if there even was one in the beginning, and fell straight down. And fell. And fell. Was this some kind of sick joke? So while cursing the transcendental mights that had obviously fun fucking with my mind, I painfully got stopped by another invisible floor.

"Ouch, fuck, that hurts." I cursed while trying to scrape myself from the ground.

"Welcome, unworthy one!" some mighty sounding voice boomed in my head and made me look up. Strong wind came up and swirled in front of me raising a whirlwind. The strong wind stung in my eyes and made them water. Between my tears I could see how a person appeared in this small tornado. As the wind disappeared I could finally made out who oh so dramatically made their entrance. It was a man. But not just any man. He was really tall, like at least 3 meters tall, had a toned body, long silver hair, some black robe that was open in front and showed his abs and glowing red eyed that pierced right through me as they scanned every inch of my body. In front of him I felt really small and helpless, maybe because that was just the case, and his stare made me uncomfortable. My whole body started to scream that he was dangerous and to run away. Just as I wanted to get up to do so the man started smirking – an evil and sadistic smirk – and his booming voice made me cower on the ground again.

"So you're the toy we're going to play with this time, huh?"

"What the?" I managed to bring out and blankly stared at him trying to figure out what he meant with this comment.

"First take a seat, then I can start explaining." He said then snipped and instantly two armchairs appeared. One for him to sit in, the other appeared right under my ass so that I directly flopped into it. Perplexed I stared at the strange guy, sitting across from me still grinning evilly.

"Listen well, bitch." He started and every little bit of sympathy that I felt towards him disappeared instantly. Asshole.

"I am the supreme amazing and good-looking god Jashin-sama. You can call me great Jashin-sama or almighty lord Jashin-sama."

Yep, asshole.

"You, some snotty little brat, have the great honor to become the play toy of the awesome me and this dude that's the god of your world. You'll-"

"Wait a moment, you're a god?" I interrupted him my mouth hanging open as I finally realized what he actually told me.

"Of course. How could someone as great as me be anything less than a super mighty god?" he again began to praise himself. Then finally he noticed that I actually interrupted him in his speech.

"You little whore dare to interrupt me! Well, this time I let it slide but don't you dare to do it again." I rolled my eyes. Can I get back to the space of infinite whiteness? Please?

"As I was saying. Your god and super cool me decided to start a little game to kill time." This time I obediently raised my hand before I interrupted him.

"Why would you try to kill time?"

"We're gods. We're fucking immortal! Of course after so many millennia of creating worlds and destroying them, even we gods can get bored. So instead of causing the apocalypse for the nth time we decided to play a little game instead. The two of us take one lowlife from our world and put them into the world of the other betting on how long they're gonna survive."

"So you want me to reincarnate in your world to amuse two completely bored gods?"

"Exactly."

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Seriously, there are so many problems and catastrophes in the world and all our oh-so kindhearted god does is playing some stupid game with the life of one of his so-called children?

"Better then doing boring stuff like helping or easing misery." Grr. I really want to punch him in the face. How good can a world be that is created by some arrogant lazy-ass good-for-nothing god like him?

"Do I have a choice here?"

"No." He answered evilly grinning again. Then after another snip of his fingers my comfy armchair disappeared and under me opened a huge hole of blackness. First white, then black. Great.

"Good luck, bitch. Well, I guess you won't even be able to survive 5 minutes." He said bursting out in laughter while I desperately tried not to loose the floating-state I was in now to not fall into the hole. While he continued laughing manically I glared daggers at him but then unfortunately lost the last footing I had and screamed as I started falling. Again. While I was falling deeper into the black I could still hear his laughter until I finally lost consciousness.

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So that was it guys. Still no Naruto World as I already mentioned but I promise next chapter the story will take place there. I wanted Jashin to be a complete asshole, hope I got it across correctly. Tell me what you thought of this chapter, I'm always happy about reviews. :D

The chapter wasn't that long this time, but there's (hopefully) enough text. I had to make a cut there and if I stretched it any further, it would've become boring. Thanks for your understanding! ^.^


	3. Arrival in a new world

Hey there! Sorry for not updating for such a long time! Big thanks to MikaHimura and magicjewel for reviewing! Luv u!

MikaHimura: First I didn't even plan to introduce so many people but it somehow turned out this way. Well, a few of them will definitely appear again ;)

**Important:** I found out that I pretty much messed up with chapter 1. Not every one was as young as Nicci. She and Sam are the only 13-yearolds and hence the youngest of all, Jake's 15 same goes for Stephen, the others are anything between 14 and 17. Hope this'll solve the issue, seemed like many had problems with this age thingy. Sorry for screwing up so much!

Since that's clear now, just enjoy chapter 3! ^^

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**Gods' Game**

Chapter 3: Arrival in a new world

Just what's wrong with my damn luck? I had to be the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper or some other psychopathic serial killer! Why else would I have so much bad luck? One couldn't probably sin enough in one life to deserve all this. First I found my best friend with my boyfriend cheating on me, then I was struck by a car, after that comes some completely insane god who forces me to battle for my existence in his frigging world for his entertainment and NOW I'm falling from a height of 3000 meters straight down towards this huge forest that reached as far as I could see. And I could see far because as I already mentioned I was frigging FALLING out of the sky! Damn! I could already imagine how I would end up getting skewered by the branches of those trees then crushing against the hard ground, blood and intestines splattering everywhere. I swear I'm gonna frigging KILL that motherfucking bastard of a god when I get back!

So instead of accepting my fate and seeing my whole goddamn life passing in front of my inner eye, I cursed that damn god for being such an asshole and screamed all the insults I could come up with at the moment.

The forest under me came nearer at an incredible speed. I saw that I wouldn't just get impaled on a branch, nooo. The spot where I would fall on was a trail that seemed to be used quite often. Great! Now I'm not only going to get squished on the ground beyond recognition, but all the trespassers will get a good look at the clump of meat that once was me! Could it possibly get any worse?

I was only seconds away from meeting my creator – again – and could now make out people walk on the exact spot I would land on.

"Oh shit." I murmured and brought my arms protectively in front of my face and pull my knees to my body. I yelped as the branches of the trees whipped against my body, ripping my clothes and the flesh under it. One branch slipped under my jacked and refused to let it go so after I got yanked around I slipped out of the sleeves and continued my fall to death, now a bit slowed down but still fast enough for instant death. As I thought it was the end and I'd hit the ground I instead hit something smooth, but the impact was still hard enough to press the air out of my lungs. My eyelids were closed tightly and I saw stars while my ears kept ringing from the long fall. I felt the smooth something I laid on move and how it placed me on my back on something hard, the ground I guess. Oh my God, I really thought I'd die – again.

The ringing in my ears slowly fading I noticed the voices of people. I slowly opened my eyes. Blinking against the sun that was high in the sky I could make out the silhouettes of four people. After becoming accustomed to the dazzling light I took in the features of the four people standing in front of my motionless form. There was one adult with black hair, a black beard and a cigarette in his mouth. The other three were children around my age, probably 12. The only girl had long blond hair and oddly resembled Candy, much to my dismay. As if one Candy wasn't bad enough there just had to be a second one! Well, let's carry on with the boy next to her. He was slender, his black hair was tied back to a ponytail that looked like a pineapple and his expression was annoyed and tired. The other boy was chubby, had brown hair and – holy shit! He had giant a hand about the size of the adult and… it was shrinking? I guess I was still traumatized from the fall and my eyes played a trick on me. Yep, that had to be it. At least my hearing went back to normal as I could now listen to their conversation.

"Well done, Choji, catching her." the grownup praised the chubby boy who apparently was called Choji.

"But who is she and where did she come from? That strange clothes she wears, I never saw anything like that before." the blonde girl said. What's her problem? Her purple outfit combined with those bandages doesn't look too normal either.

"Why don't you just ask her? Because she's staring at you right now." the pineapple guy said lazily. The girl startled as she stared at me and right into my eyes. But my attention turned to the boy who has talked just now. He reminded me of Stephen with that indifferent look in his eyes and his laid-back attitude.

Then I decided to inspect the damage that my body carried away and flinched. My arms were covered in blood and there were so many cuts I almost believed there was no skin left. My legs looked about the same but the sturdier denim could ast least partly protect the skin on my shins. Now that I saw my injuries the pain finally made it to my senses and I winced again. Well at least my torso was relatively unharmed minus a huge bruise I'd inevitably get.

"Hey girl, you okay?" the bearded man asked with a polite smile on his face. He startled me out of my thoughts and it took me some time until I brought my brain to work again and I could nod to his question.

"You don't seem to be a ninja."

"A ninja?" I asked confused. Why should I be a ninja? Didn't those only exist in Japan, like, centuries ago? The four around me stared at me as if I grew a third arm or something. Where ninja that common here that it's strange if someone didn't know of them? But then I remembered that I wasn't at home anymore but in the world of this crazy Jashin-guy. Maybe here a ninja was a completely normal job like a police officer or a craftsman. Then something caught my attention. They all wore some sort of headbands with a metal plate on it and these plates all had the same sign carved into it. Furthermore had they pouches around their legs that were full with small weapons. Throwing knives and stars from the look of it.

"Where do you come from?" The man continued after recovering from the shock I gave them. I knew better then telling them the truth about that bet of the gods and me coming from another world – as if they would believe me anyway – and instead chose to play dumb and just pointed to the sky.

"From there."

"What's with this stupid answer?" Not-Candy snapped but I just gave her a cold look. I wasn't lying, was I?

"How did you fall from the sky?" the man kept asking, deciding to play along with me. But again I couldn't tell him what he wanted to know and just shrugged. This also wasn't really a lie. How the heck did I end up like this again? Oh yeah, this good-for-nothing god.

The man however didn't like my answer and me unwilling to cooperate and changed meaningful looks with his team before again turning to me.

"We must ask you to come with us to Konoha." he said. That wasn't a question but an order. I didn't know what exactly this "Konoha" was but I could read in his face that if I refused, he would resort to violence. So I decided to just nod and saw how their facial muscles relaxed.

The chubby boy got closer and offered me his hand.

"I'm Akimichi Choji, nice to meet you." he introduced himself with a kind smile. I thankfully accepted his hand and let him help me stand up, but had to hang on to his arm because my still shaking legs refused to support me.

"I'm Nicole Everett, but everyone calls me Nicci."

"Strange name." Not-Stephen said then pointed to himself.

"Nara Shikamaru."

"Believe it or not but for me it's your names that sound strange." I retorted grinning. He replied my grin with a lazy smile then pointed to the girl and the man with the cigarette.

"These are Yamanaka Ino and Sarutobi Asuma-sensei." Asuma gave me a friendly smile while Ino glared at me. Nice girl… But except for her I somehow liked these guys. They seemed to be nice people, maybe I could trust them.

But then I remembered something.

"What is this 'Konoha' you were talking about?" And again a got four shocked stares. Really, didn't they get it by now, that I wasn't from here and thus don't know anything about this place?

"Konohagakure is the village we living in." Asuma started explaining, realizing that I wasn't acquainted with this country. Or continent. Or world for that matter. "It's located in the Land of Fire, one of the five Great Shinobi Countries. Every Great country and some of the smaller countries has its own Shinobi village. The ninjas of these villages are the soldiers of the country. The leaders of the villages of the Great Countries are called Kage who hold the power over the village and an important role in politics. The Kage of Konoha is called Hokage and we will take you to him."

I was thankful for his long explanation albeit I didn't even get half of it.

"So these villages are a stronghold where soldiers get drilled." I summarized for myself.

"So they call it stronghold where you come from?" Choji asked and I nodded.

"But the villages are not only inhabited by ninja but also by normal civilists." Asuma corrected me.

"You seem to come from a far away country if you know so little about our political system." Shikamaru remarked. His gaze was scheming and I knew he wanted to get information out of me and to tell the truth I really considered to give him what he wanted. It's not like it mattered much for me. I lost everything and have to start from zero with my life again. There was a chance that I could find shelter in their village and it would be only natural to want to find out everything about me before they'd accept me. But with my luck I'd just get tortured and then killed. Well, not that I'd expect anything else.

"M-hm. The place I come from is really far away and like a completely different world. But I really don't know how I came here." I explained inwardly laughing at my remark about a different world. This was quite ironical how one could twist and bend the meaning of words until they fit into a sentence without one having to lie. My answer also seemed to please them and they didn't ask any further questions regarding my background. These guys were really nice and I decided that I could trust them. Maybe there was still a spark of luck left that decided to come and help me out. And I sincerely hoped that it would stay a little while longer.

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After hours of walking through this endless forest my feet started aching like hell, I was thirsty, my wounds were hurting like a bitch and the dried blood on my arms and legs was really itchy but I resisted the urge to scratch, afraid that the cuts would reopen. Strangely enough no one of the others showed even the tiniest sign of being tired at all. I stopped dead in my tracks and supported myself with my arms on my knees to catch my breath. Meanwhile I watched the others continuing on their way until they realized that I was no longer following them.

"What's wrong, Nicci-san?" Asuma asked.

"I'm tired." I answered simply. Asuma sighed then came nearer and when he stood in front of me he turned around crouching down.

"Get on."

I looked at him quizzically. Was he really offering me a piggyback ride just now? He gave me his polite smile again.

"You're tired, right? It isn't that far till we arrive at the village and this way we're quicker." I gave him a skeptical look, not knowing how we could be faster when he had to carry but crawled onto his back nonetheless.

I held tight to his shoulders as he stood up and had to suppress a scream as they all leapt off the ground and onto the solid branches of the trees that lined the trail. From there they jumped from tree to tree completely effortlessly. I wondered what ninjas in this world actually were capable of. I noticed that I dug my nails into Asuma's shoulder so I loosened my grip and felt the man under me relaxing.

"Sorry." I mumbled then dared to look to the ground. They say you shouldn't do that if you're high up but it's not like I'm afraid of heights. We were practically flying about 15 m over the ground and the wind whistled around my ears from the speed they gained from this way of traveling I once thought of as impossible. Not long and I could make out a wooden wall in the distance, behind it the towering roofs of huge buildings. Then they said village they actually meant a town, huh? So that was Konohagakure…

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Yay, next chapter done! From here on the real story begins. I got some nice ideas for this story recently so look forward to it. Well not the next chapter because there will be more explaining and all but I promise the action will come soon!

I also thought about changing from Nicci's point of view to a general one, but I guess I'll just skip between them in the future so please don't let this confuse you!

And last but not least: Please review! This story always takes so long for me to update and I would surely be faster if there were some people kicking my butt to get me update faster.


	4. Welcome to Konoha

Hey there again! Thanks and hugs to DanicaSharp, MikaHimura and magicjewel for your reviews!

Was pretty fast with this update, too, only 2 weeks! Hey, for me that's fast!

Ok this chapter got pretty long this time. I first thought of cutting it off in the middle and use the second part for the next chapter but decided against it. Well take it as a little gift from me to you! ^^

Enough said, enjoy this chapter!

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**Gods' Game**

Chapter 4: Welcome to Konoha

Outside POV:

To put it simple, Nicci was amazed. Konoha was even bigger than she had imagined. But apart from the size Konoha also had the charm of a village. There were trees everywhere that prevented the buildings to look jammed together. The architecture of the buildings was completely unknown to her but here and there she could recognize a Japanese architectural style, especially the roofs. The streets were unpaved unlike the tarred roads back home. There weren't even cars. Instead they used carts and animals to transport goods, while the people used bikes. This strange mix of medieval and modern times confused her to no end. There were familiar things but just as many strange new things that didn't even fit into her understanding of physical law. Take these people for example. Most of them were strolling through the streets like complete normal humans, while there were some people who were jumping from one roof to another, a distance of 10 meters like it was nothing even worth mentioning! But then again, Asuma and the other three did exactly the same, jumping from tree to tree, almost flying. Seems like this was an average skill of a ninja in this world.

Right now she was following Asuma, Shikamaru, Choji and Ino who were walking along the main street. This street was broad but still filled with enough people to make it easy to lose track of your comrades, so she stuck close to Asuma, anxious not lose them. But she also saw the reason as to why this street was so crowded. Shops and stalls were lining up on both sides of the street and merchants everywhere to present their goods. On the end of the road soared a giant natural wall of stone and carved in it were four stone faces that oddly reminded her of Mt Rushmore. In front of it was a huge building towering over everything else.

"That's the Hokage's residence." Asuma explained and motioned the girl to follow him together with the other three.

They entered the building, passed through various corridors and stairs until they stopped in front of a huge wooden door. Asuma knocked and a muffled 'Come in' resounded. The man entered first followed by Shikamaru, Choji, Nicci hiding behind him and finally Ino who closed the door behind her.

They were now in a spacious room with a glass front, in front of it a desk with stacks of paper work lying on it. Behind it sat an old man in a red and white robe, who was smoking a pipe.

"Ah, Asuma. I heard the mission was successful?" he greeted them with a content smile on his lips. The girl didn't know why but something of this man made her feel relaxed, almost secure. He appeared to be a kind old man and not the head of a ninja village. But from his eyes she could tell that there was no cruelty this man didn't see in his years of life.

"Everything went smoothly. But on the way back we picked up an interesting person." Asuma explained and pointed his head in Nicci's direction. She swallowed hard and moved from behind Choji to stand next to Asuma. There she bowed nervously.

"My name is Nicole Everett."

The old man eyed her in an interested manner and the girl began fidgeting and nervously looking around her.

"There, there, young lady. There's no need to be so nervous." He tied to comfort her with his gentle smile.

"On our way we found her falling from the sky and she would've probably died if Choji hadn't caught her." Asuma explained. Meanwhile the girl's eyes kept darting around the room. Something made her nervous, really nervous.

"And how did it come to this incident?" the Hokage continued asking while the other man again decided to answer in her place.

"She doesn't know herself. All we could find out is that she from somewhere far away and that she practically doesn't know anything about this place. Isn't that so, Nicci-san? Nicci-san?" The man looked strangely at the girl who didn't pay any attention to their conversation but instead kept observing the room.

"What's wrong?" he asked her and laid a hand on her shoulder. That shook her out of her thoughts and she looked up to him.

"All those people watching us. They make me nervous."

Asuma's eyes widened of surprise and everyone looked at her shocked. Then two figures jumped out of the shadows. One grabbed the girl's arm and pinned them painfully on her back while the other held some sort of knife to her throat. She gasped then held her breath too afraid to move a single muscle.

"Hold it." the Hokage commanded the two men in black clothes wearing animal masks and motioned them to let the girl go. Their obeyed and let go of her, the girl's legs giving in and letting her drop on the floor. She sat there panting and shaking. She would've died if it wasn't for the old man stopping these two guys.

"She hasn't any control over her chakra, so she's no ninja. She no danger for us." he explained to the two attackers. It seemed that they were guards. He than turned his focus at the brunette.

"Say, girl. If it's true that you know nothing, then how could you know there were Anbu hidden? They had masked their Chakra so you couldn't have sensed them."

She stared at the man. Her fear was fading away and got replaced by another emotion, confusion.

"Anbu? Chakra? What's that?"

The Hokage started laughing making her only more confused.

"I don't know where you're from, girl, but this place has to be really far away if you don't even know about chakra." he chuckled then cleared his throat.

"I guess it would be best, Nicole-chan, if we first get you to hospital to treat your wounds. After that I will have Ibiki, an expert of interrogation, talking to you. During this time no visitors will be allowed. Is that okay with you?"

She nodded. What else should she do? If she refused they'd probably kill her. Now she also remembered her badly cut arms and legs. Great, now they're hurting again. Damn it!

"Asuma, please escort our guest to the hospital. After that I'd like to discuss a few things with you." The man nodded and motioned the kids to leave. Outside of the building he told his team that they could call it a day.

"Don't worry, Nicci-chan. We'll visit you as soon as you get released from the hospital." Choji soothed her smiling and Shikamaru nodded in agreement. Then they both went after Ino who already left. Nicci smiled at them and then followed Asuma to the hospital.

As soon as they got there Asuma left and Nicci got stuck into a room, where one of the nurses cleaned the cuts and bandaged them.

"Woah, girl, where did you get all these?" she asked her gently stroking one of her many bruises.

"Fell from a tree." the girl answered shrugging, sounded better than 'randomly fell from the sky'. She then looked up and stared at the door, that seconds later glided open and a tall brawny man with a black cloak and a head scarf entered the room.

"Leave us alone." He ordered the nurse in a commanding voice. The woman bowed and almost ran out of the room, but Nicci could understand her all too well. This man was scary and if she could she would have already fled, but there were just too many guards hiding around this room. The tall man came nearer and stopped right in front of the girl that tensed visibly as she had to crane her neck to look into the man's face.

"My name is Morino Ibiki. You are Everett Nicole, I presume?" he asked politely but his voice held a dangerous coldness. She nodded, unable to speak. It seems this is that expert of interrogation the Hokage mentioned.

"I will ask you a few questions. Answer them truthfully. I know when you're lying." The last part was definitely a threat. Again she just nodded.

"Where are you from?"

"From far away." she answered and he glared at her obviously not satisfied with her response so she corrected herself.

"Germany."

"I never heard of this place before." he stated and stared at her as if he was trying to read the truth in her face.

"That's why I said it's far away." she replied shrugging.

"How did you come here?"

"I don't know."

He frowned. He then leaned forward until his face was only a few centimetres away from hers. She could feel his breath on her skin and was paralyzed by fear.

"How did you come here?" he repeated his dark eyes boring into her brown ones.

"I don't know." I repeated my voice not more than a slight whisper. He backed away and his furrows deepened while he was in thoughts.

"How much do you know about Konohagakure?"

"Only what Asuma had told me."

"Did he tell you about the Anbu?"

"What are Anbu?"

"The guards at the Hokage's office. Did he tell you about them?"

"No."

The man went silent and stared at her for a moment before he continued to speak.

"How many Anbu are there right now?"

The girl looked around her and observed the room before turning back to the man in front of her.

"Five." she answered.

"Wrong. Four." the man corrected her.

"No. Five." she argued. Even thought she was afraid of him she hated it when she was called a liar when she was actually telling the truth.

"She's right." one of the Anbu said as he appeared next to the interrogator.

"We had to tell you a wrong number of guards so we could eliminate the use of genjutsu or mind controlling."

He nodded and the guard disappeared again. He then turned to the door sliding it open.

"I'll go report to the Hokage. You won't leave the room unless I say so. Understood?"

The girl nodded and watched the man going away. Great. Now she had to sit around with nothing to do until this scary guy came back to most likely execute her.

About one hour later he came back together with Asuma and a third man, who was about the same age as Asuma and had long blonde hair in a ponytail. He oddly reminded Nicci of Ino, like he was a relative of her or something.

"Nicci-chan, that's Yamanaka Inoichi. He will search your mind to any leads of your past and how you came here." Asuma explained with his typical smile. She nodded reluctantly. Her mind? She didn't like that one bit. What if they found out about her world and tormented her to reveal all the secrets of technology in her world apart from the fact that she didn't know anything about that. After all she was no frigging mechanician. But unfortunately she had no other option but to cooperate if she didn't want to be killed right away. Because this would have happened judging from Asuma's relieved reaction to her answer.

She sat on the edge of the hospital bed while Inoichi stood in front of her and laid his hands on her head.

"Close you eyes and relax." he ordered and she tried to do just this. But it wasn't an easy task to relax if you know that some stranger's going to mess with your head and was about to find out all of your embarrassing secrets.

Suddenly some strange dizziness fell over her and she wasn't able to think straight for some time. As this feeling disappeared just as fast as it came, she opened her eyes and saw the man in front of her removing his hands and sighing. He thought for a long moment then smiled at the girl.

"Seems like you passed." This said he left the room with Ibiki following him. She looked at Asuma in a questioning manner.

"What does he mean?"

"That means you're no threat for us and you can stay here in Konoha." he explained smiling.

"Why threat?"

"I'll explain that on the way." He motioned her to follow him. She jumped off the bed and ran after the man. As they exited the hospital she walked next to him.

"Where are we going?"

"To my home. You will stay with me and I'll train you to become a ninja, at the Hokage's behest." Again she looked at him confused. She, becoming a ninja? But she knew absolutely nothing about this world. Didn't she have any say in this?

* * *

Meanwhile in the Hokage's office.

"So she's no threat." the Hokage stated contentedly.

"However there's a problem with her." Ibiki replied. The old man cocked an eyebrow.

"A probem?"

"As I was searching her mind I found something strange." Inoichi explained. "I could trace her memory to the point where she fell from the sky. But before that there was nothing."

"Nothing? Maybe a genjutsu or someone erased her memories." the Hokage pondered but the blond shook his head.

"When erasing memories fragments will always be left and there would be a way to restore them. If it was a genjutsu, I would have come upon a barrier that'd stop me from continuing any further. But there was absolutely nothing. It's as if she just started to exist that exact moment."

"While interrogating her, she said she from a place called 'Germany'. So there has to be something." Ibiki said. The tree men went silent for a long time until the Hokage began to speak.

"I told Asuma to take care of her and try to find out more about her strange circumstances. So until then you try to find out more about this 'Germany'." The two man nodded and left the office. The Hokage looked out of the huge windows, observing the bustling village under him, while thoughtfully stroking his goatee.

"Interesting…"

* * *

On the way to his house, Asuma told Nicci many things about this village, this continent and etiquettes like putting a suffix after a name. Then he showed her his flat. She really liked it. It was clean and spacious and bright. He also had a spare room that she could use. In there was a bed, a wardrobe, a dresser and a nightstand made of the same dark wood. On the hardwood floor was a dark blue rug and in front of the window were curtains in the same color. The walls were a plain white.

Nicci was hopping on the bed, not believing her luck. To tell the truth in her current state she would've been happy with only a heap of straw to sleep on.

Asuma watched the girl for a while. He was glad that the girl was finally sincerely happy for the first time since they met. He watched as the girl stopped jumping but instead looking in the direction of the door. Seconds later it knocked. He cocked an eyebrow but put it aside that he would think about that later. Instead he went to the girl and gave her a little pouch.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Money. The knocking was Ino. I asked her to go shopping with you. After all you have no clothes but what you're wearing right now, do you?"

The girl frowned. She didn't like Ino and that was mutual. But Asuma was right with the clothes so she had no other choice.

She jumped off the bed and bowed to the man in front of her.

"Thank you, Mr. Asuma...-san." she said remembering his explanation about using suffixes, then went out to meet Ino waiting impatiently in front of the door. Asuma smiled gently as he watched her go. It wouldn't be so bad after all to watch this child, he thought.

Outside the girls were glaring at each other. Nicci then sighed and bowed to the blonde.

"Thank you for helping me out, uhh, Ino-san."

"Woah! You can actually be nice?" the other yelled shocked. The brunette's eye twitched but she swallowed it. This girl was an apprentice of Asuma, so they should better get along.

"Not if you keep reacting like that." she then pointed out instead of making a mean comment. Ino got the point and started walking down the road.

"You coming? I know this shop, where we can find nice clothes without wasting all of Asuma-sensei's money." she called out to her and waited for her to catch up.

You've got to hand it to Ino. She really was an expert about fashion. She stuck Nicci into one outfit after another and soon found out what colors and styles would suit her. After an hour of continuous changing and trying on, they ended up buying three pants, two skirts, seven tops and two jackets. Oh and three pair of those black sandals everyone was wearing, one black pair with heels and two pair of normal black ones. They also bought necessities like underwear, leggings, accessories and makeup.

Right now Nicci was wearing a beige miniskirt with black leggings not much longer than the skirt itself. Over a fishnet top she wore a plain beige top and two black belts that hang loose over her hip. She also changed from her sneakers into one of the pairs of sandals. They were more comfortable than she had first thought.

Walking down the street the two girls talked about fashion, makeup and what not until they saw Choji and Shikamaru and went up to them.

"Hey, Nicci-chan. Wow, these clothes suit you." Choji complimented the brunette.

"Of course. After all it was me who chose them." Ino declared proudly.

"Now I'm surprised that you actually put her into nice clothes." Shikamaru mentioned.

"That's because we actually get along just fine." Nicci proclaimed and the two boys looked at her confused.

"So you actually like each other?"

"That oddly reminds me of Sakura."

"What about me?"

They all turned around to face a girl their age with long pink hair and two boys following her. One had blonde hair and was constantly grinning while the other had black hair and was constantly glaring.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun! Long time no see!" Ino squealed completely ignoring the pinkhaired girl that was now glaring at her.

"Ino-pig, get away from my Sasuke-kun!"

"As if you have any say in this, forehead!"

Then the two girls started glaring at each other and sparks emitted from their eyes.

"Uhh, can you explain me what's going on?" Nicci asked Shikamaru who was watching the fight with an irritated expression on his face.

"They are fighting like usual over Uchiha Sasuke."

"And who's that?"

"That guy over there." He pointed to the blackhaired boy who glared at the girls and 'che'-ed, then stared elsewhere.

"And what's so great about this emo-boy?" she then asked, but a bit to loud. The blonde boy started laughing hysterically and the girls now turned their deathglares at her.

"Hahahaha, emo-boy! That suits you Sasuke!" the laughing boy yelled and the blackhaired boy now also started glaring at the girl which she happily replied with a glare on her own.

Choji sweatdropped and pushed the two girls away from the others, Shikamaru following him.

"Bye, guys. We have to go now."

After they were out of sight the group of four stopped.

"Wow, you're the first girl I know who hasn't fallen for Sasuke." Choji appreciatively told the brunette girl.

"Why should I?" she asked not understanding how any girl could fall for a gloomy emo like that. Well, Ino seemed to have to explain her beloved's gorgeousness to her.

"Why? Because he's handsome and smart and skilled and strong and mysterious and-"

"Arrogant and always glaring and egocentric and an emo?" the other girl interrupted her in her hymn of praise.

"Finally a girl with a bit of brain." Shikamaru noted smirking and got initially snarled at by Ino.

"Uh, Ino?"

"What?"

"Why aren't you just happy that I don't be a love rival to you?" Nicci suggested. Ino seemed to agree to that but tried to convince her of the perfectness of Uchiha Sasuke for the rest of the day.

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Well, that was pretty much it. That was the hell of a pain in the ass to write this chapter. First I wrote it in Nicci's POV but it sounded stupid so I changed it to outside POV but all the time I switched back and then had to correct it! I think I found all these switches but if you find any please tell my so.

Finally, please review! Reviews make me happy and let me update faster as you could see from this chapter!


	5. Not like I want to be a ninja

Hey there! I know I didn't update for like forever! But this time it wasn't just this story, I didn't find any time to write anything and then my comp started bitching and I had to buy a laptop. But everything's okay now and I can finally continue writing, yay!

Oh and I changed the first chapter a bit. Not much, just adding the age of some people to clear those stupid misunderstandings. If you didn't reread (or just started reading this story) the first chapter, you don't have to do it now. Just added that Jake and Stephen are 15 and Candy is 14 and that's is pretty much. Didn't even looks for spelling mistakes or anything... Evil laziness...

So enough with my lame excuses, here's the 5th chapter of my story Gods' Game! Enjoy!

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**Gods' Game**

Chapter 5: Not like I want to be a ninja

"Dead." Asuma-sensei announced as he held a kunai to my throat from behind me. As he released me I fell to my knees panting and sweating. For five weeks now Asuma was training me in Taijutsu and according to him I wasn't even at academy level. This wasn't because his training methods were too shallow or something – thanks to him I could now easily run a marathon without breaking a sweat – it was because of me. My body was too ponderous, my movements too slow. The only thing about me that was extraordinary – at least according to my teacher – were my eyes and my observation skills. I could identify every tiniest movement of his in the split of a second, no matter how fast it was. The problem was that I lacked the speed to follow up. Nothing that can't be corrected with a bit of training he'd then say, but I knew this was my limit. In my world the human body wasn't as durable as here so I could train as much as I wanted it was still near to impossible for me to reach the level of an average ninja.

"Again." Asuma-sensei ordered and motioned me to stand up.

"This time without weapons."

I was still panting but did what he said and put the kunai in my hand back in the pouch that I had tightened around my right leg. Then I went into fighting stance, like one might know from martial arts movies.

"Go." Asuma said and instantly vanished from the place he was standing until now. At least it looked like that for normal people. As for me I saw his every move. Feinting from the left, coming from the right, punch to the side. I barely had enough time to block it with my right arm but winced as the pain of the impact went through my arm and I got pushed backwards. That'd get me a bruise. But he held back most of his strength.

In these past five weeks almost every day I was in hospital because of broken bones, fractures and so on. But no matter how complicated the injury the doctors there would always heal me within two to three hours. They always used this greenish chakra to do so. But after the treatment the doctor would always be exhausted probably because the green chakra uses up most of his stamina. Maybe that was the reason why they rarely do this. Partly also because it's disturbing the natural metabolism of the cells and slowing down their binari fission – thus a double-edged sword. I wonder why they'd make an exception with me? Maybe that I could make up for the "missed" training quicker this way?

"Don't zone off and concentrate." my teacher ordered and pulled me out of my trail of thoughts, just in the right time to dodge his next punch. We exchanged a few punches but he got faster and faster with every hit pushing me more and more into defence. A feinted punch to the right, a kick to the left then grabbing my head with his hand he rammed it into the ground.

My vision got black for a moment and I began seeing stars. My skull throbbed painfully and felt like it'd burst apart any moment.

Asuma sighted and paced back and forth.

"I don't get it. You see every attack and move accordingly albeit too slow. But no matter how long or often I make you run, you just won't get any faster."

"It's like I told you. My body's too weak." I protested as I scraped my aching body off the ground and wiped the blood off my face that kept flowing out of the laceration that I got from the contact with the hard ground. Pain.

"But the doctors didn't find anything that could verify that." he objected frowning. Seemed like this really got to him.

"Maybe I just have no talent for this taijutsu stuff." I suggested hopefully that he'd finally give in and leave me alone with this hell of a training.

"Maybe you're right." he admitted reluctantly getting my hopes higher.

"For now we should continue with Ninjutsu and Chakra controlling."

Instantly my mood hit the bottom again. More work? Even though for me it was already obvious that I'd utterly fail again.

Asuma sat down on the ground with crossed legs and motioned me to do the same. I obeyed and crawled to the spot across from him. Graceful, I know.

"Nicci, what do you already know about Chakra?" he asked me.

"Only what you told me, Asuma-san."

"I want you to tell me exactly what you know."

I sighted and quickly searched my mind for every information that had to do with Chakra.

"Uhm, Chakra is present and perceptible in every living being. It consists of physical and spiritual energy. When both are brought into balance, one can manipulate it to use it for jutsus, strength, speed or to walk on water." I closed my report and was now facing a silent Asuma-sensei that eyed me with a cocked eyebrow.

"Perceptible?" he then asked suspiciously. I looked at him in an confused manner.

"Err, yeah. Isn't that normal?"

"Sensing Chakra is a skill that only Jonin and some Chunin possess. How is it possible you can use it?"

I got even more confused as I tried to understand what the man just told me. But he didn't wait for me to respond instead asked the next question.

"Back then, the incident at Hokage-sama's office, did you also sense the Anbu?"

I nodded and wondered what he wanted to say. But he didn't answer and just closed his eyes, forming a hand seal with his hands. Fascinated I watched as the aura that surrounded him started swirling, concentrated and got emitted much stronger than before. Afterwards he stood up and and directed his serious gaze at me, making me nervous.

"You saw what I did?"

I nodded.

"That's called Chakra manipulation. Go home and practice that until I'll be back." he ordered and already turned around to go but I stopped him.

"Where are you going?" I asked him with a worried expression. My eyes showing the fear, that what I told him would hold great consequences for me.

He gave me a reassuring smile.

"To the Hokage, reporting. Chakra sensors are pretty rare and just as valuable, so there's nothing for you to be afraid of."

I frowned and doubted it would be this easy. Even in the best case scenario I still had to survive hellish times of torturous training.

But nonetheless I did what I was told and obediently got going.

But first I went to the hospital to get my laceration treated. I didn't even have to wait and got treated right away. The only positive thing for being a regular guest in a hospital, no waiting period. I got healed within 10 minutes and didn't even have a concussion. He really went easy on me! Even the nurse noticed that, being used to much more serious injuries of mine.

"Well, I guess it's because we've started to practice chakra controlling today." I explained.

"Really? Then it seems that we won't see you here as often any more." she said smiling.

"I hope so." I answered grinning and then went on my way. When I passed the Yamanaka's flower shop and saw through all the bouquets in the shop window that Ino had to help out again, I couldn't resist to pay her a little visit.

As she saw me entering the shop her eyes lit up a second and she greeted me without halting in arranging her bouquet for even a moment.

"Hey, Nicci-chan. Already finished with training today?"

"Uh-huh. Asuma-sensei decided to train me in ninjutsu now, since he finally accepted my incompetence in taijutsu." I told her grinning.

She started laughing and put the finished bouquet in a vase, ready to get sold. It was really pretty with big yellow Flowers and small white ones. Too bad I didn't know their names. Maybe I'll ask Ino to teach me some day. She put the scissors, that she used to cut the flowers to size, to the side and turned to look at me.

"Well, at least you don't have to go to hospital every day anymore. And how does your training get along?"

"Dunno. I have to go home and practice chakra manipulation. Let's see how well I'll do."

"You can do it for sure. By the way, did Asuma-sensei mention anything about wanting to go on a mission with us some time again?" she asked hope resounding in her voice. Sadly I shook my head.

"No, he didn't. I'm sorry for occupying your teacher so much."

"It's okay. This way the past two weeks we had enough time to train with our parents. It's just, that slowly my father starts to really get on my nerves."

"Haha, I can understand you there. Two weeks intensive father-daughter-time wouldn't survive anyone without starting to go insane." I said laughing.

We kept chattering like this for some time until I decided to finally go home and do what Asuma had told me.

He normally needs four to five hours to get back whenever he tells me that he's reporting to the Hokage. And when he came back he'd always smell like the fragrance of a certain female ninja that's the sensei of another genin team. Her name's Kurenai. The funniest thing about it was that Asuma'd always deny their relationship with a completely red face.

Anyhow I still had a few hours left until he came back .

The moment I entered the flat I flopped onto the couch with crossed legs and started to do the exact same thing that Asuma had showed me. I felt both energies and tried to bring them into a perfect balance. My tummy started tingling the more chakra I manipulated.

Satisfied with this I stopped and let the chakra slowly dissolve. I dare to say I did pretty well for the first time and decided to take a long shower as a reward for not failing for once.

* * *

Half an hour later I was still showering. I let my body soak in the hot water that soothed my bruised skin. Just as I thought my arm really got all black and blue.

"Nasty." I mumbled as I inspected all the bruises on my body. Though my wounds got treated didn't mean that they healed absolutely everything. Which resulted in my skin now having all kinds of different colours and shades from a dark purple to a light green and brown.

While poking the bruises and wincing I suddenly felt the presence of a familiar chakra signature approaching the front door. So I jumped out of the shower, quickly dried my body with a towel, put on a t-shirt and leggings and ran into the living room with my hair still wet just in time to see Asuma closing the door behind him.

"You're early." I remarked "Kurenai-sensei didn't have time today?"

"She had go to on a mission. Anyway that doesn't have anything to do with you!" he added with his face blushing. I smirked at him and he cleared his throat to hide his emarrassment.

"Didn't I tell you to practice manipulating your Chakra?"

"I did. Then I took a shower." I answered shrugging.

"Then show me what you can do if you already have the time to be slacking off."

I moaned and hopped onto the sofa with crossed legs. Then I closed my eyes and did the same as last time. I felt the chakra flowing through my body just waiting for me to use it. Just like a sixth sense I could feel the energy emitting in waves from my body filling the whole room and getting reflected from the walls and furniture, even Asuma-sensei, making me able to "see" just like a sonar.

"Good, that's enough... Nicci-chan, that's enough, you can stop now... Stop it Nicci-chan!"

I perked up from the cry of my teacher and lost the concentration on whatever I did just now. He stood there panting and drops of sweat forming on his forehead. As the last bit of chakra dissolved I suddenly felt dead tired and let me fall back into the sofa cushions.

"What's wrong?" I asked him full of confusion and while panting myself "Did I do something wrong?"

"That's not it." he answered getting back his composure "It was perfect. It's just that it's hard to breathe with this highly concentrated chakra filling the room. But I'm surprised. I didn't think you'd be able to control your chakra this efficiently." With the last sentence he started to smile his typical reassuring smile.

"Now we just have to train how to manipulate just as much chakra as you need for your jutsus."

This suspiciously smelled like a lot of work...

"Anyway, what did Hokage-sama say?" I quickly changed the topic before I really had to start to train again.

"We'll test how well-marked this skill is you possess and decide afterwards what to do with you. But there's a high possibility that you really are a sensor and if that's the case, a great career as a ninja could await you. Even if not on the battlefield regarding your taijutsu skills."

A smile formed on my face. Seemed like my constant visits in the hospital finally came to an end.

"But we'll still continue to train your taijutsu apart from your normal training."

Damn!

* * *

That's it for this chapter, hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to concentrate more on this story from now on or Nicci will haunt me or something... Also if you have any suggestions for this story, feel free to tell me, since the only thing I'm sure of in this story is the ending and even here I don't know how exactly it'll end. As for the rest... ideas just keep popping into my head, so let's see in how far I can use them!

And at last, like always, please review! I'll try not to take such a long break ever again (at least without telling you guys!) and I'm even already writing on the next chapter so the chances are high that I might probably update pretty soon again ;) well, in my case soon means biweekly but oh well^^


	6. Hellish training

Hey there! Really found some time to write this... wow!

Thanks and cookies to Yamouri Kesaki and x-Beyond-B for reviewing! ^.^

So sorry for updating this late! I tried to do so earlier but I couldn't focus on writing at all!

Having nightmares for days now... cool! XD Well, at least better then dreaming nothing at all ;) Nightmares are really cool... at least most of them... those without zombies or clowns or monkeys... or zombie monkey clowns! O_o

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 6: Hellish training

"Beautiful..." I mumbled while starring to the sky and watching the clouds.

An agreeing "Hmmmh..." came from the blackhaired boy next to me. Together with Shikamaru I was lying on the roof of some building cloud watching. This became my favourite hobby since after all that training I always feel like dying and this way I'm not forced to move my aching body. Okay, at the moment that wasn't the case but I still prefer cloud watching not least because Shikamaru made a nice companion. There he reminded me more and more of Stephen who always used to be my favourite person to hang out with.

"It's nice to have time for myself once in a while." I sighted contently.

"Your training seems pretty troublesome." the boy remarked lazily.

"Troublesome is an understatement." I moaned "It feels like an eternity the last time I could sleep in and I hardly find time to hang out with anybody."

"No wonder. A Chakra sensor with your talent is pretty rare. So it's just natural to make an elite out of you." he commented more pitying then appreciating. Obviously.

Two weeks ago I took a test to see if really was a Chakra sensor and how strong this ability of mine would be. Just as Asuma-san predicted, my result was outstanding. Not only was I able to sense Chakra – masked or not – in a radius of 5 km, I was even able to send out small waves of Chakra to visualise the surrounding area in my mind. Normal shinobi weren't able to sense these waves but sensors could so I'll have to be careful to use this ability, at least according to the instructors of this test.

Anyway, those guys also said that they never saw such a strong sensing ability ever before. Sounds good, right? Well, it wasn't! My life became hell! My daily routine became like this:

I had to get up at 5 am, eating, showering, then going to training. This included 3 laps around the village as well as stamina and strength training. The worst of this wasn't the torture they called "warm-up", I was already used to this thanks to Asuma-san. No, the worst of all were my hyperactive and youth-possessed teacher Guy-sensei and his just as crazy pupil Rock Lee, who just had to ruin my mornings even more with their gay attitude and waffling about youthfulness and what not especially since I was a hard case of a morning grouch. I'm not against gays or anything, it's just that they always make me think 'just go to a hotel already and leave me alone'!

After that came sparring with Lee, which didn't make it any better because he's some frigging MONSTER in Taijutsu and always starts crying whenever Guy-sensei'd say something and would immediately start noting it down. This was always the moment that I used to make a bolt for it. Then I'd spent two hours hiding from them, where my ability as a sensor came in handy since I always knew where they were which made up for my lack of speed and strength.

After I overcame this it was about lunchtime. When necessary I'd go to hospital to heal my wounds and then look for some friends to eat lunch together with, which was Asuma's team most of the time.

At exactly 1 pm I had to show up at Ibiki's office to get taught in Chakra control and Genjutsu. This was more pleasant than Guy's training since I learned relatively quickly that Chakra stuff and the training was solely on mental basis. The problem was that Ibiki was a pretty old-fashioned and impatient teacher thus I had to endure his punches when making something wrong or being too slow for his liking. Not nice...

At 4 pm I had classes by Iruka-sensei. He was a teacher at the academy and he teached me basic knowledge of this world like history, geography, politics, some biology and even reading and writing – since I never learned hiragana and kanji and all that. He was kind, patient and attentive and I really liked him. Sometimes he'd treat me to a cup of ramen together with that blond boy called Naruto. There I learned to eat with chopsticks. My first time eating with chopsticks was really embarrassing since I didn't even know how to hold them. And even after Iruka showed me I wasn't any better since every time I tried the noodles just kept slipping back into the bowl and splashing the sauce all over me. Then Naruto always broke into a fit of laughter until I threw a whole lot of noodles right in his face. With chopsticks. Ha, take that! Since then I even used chopsticks at Asuma's flat to prevent those embarrassing moments from happening again.

At 7 pm my training continued at the training grounds where several jonin would take turns in teaching me Ninjutsu, usage of different weapons and such. The jonin who'd teach me depends on who has actually the time to do so. Till now I had Asuma-san, Kurenai-san and Kakashi-san.

This usually took 2 to 3 hours depending on how much time my teacher wants to spend on me.

After that I could finally go home. There I'd grab a bite to eat, take a shower and then immediately go to bed. This was usually at 10 or 11 pm.

The next morning was the same as the day before, and the day before, and the day before. I didn't even get one day off, not even on Sundays or holidays. Not like I knew their holidays but still!

As you can see I hardly even get enough sleep to restore all the chakra that I used up the day before so I always had a hard time to fight for some free time, take today for example. First thing in the morning Lee and Guy-sensei started flirting with each other again so I took that chance and ran off. Just this time they noticed earlier than expected and I actually had to use Genjutsu I learned from Ibiki-sensei to trick them to successfully escape. If I told Ibiki-sensei, he'd surely be proud of me if he weren't to occupied with punishing me for skipping training.

Anyway then ran off to Shikamaru who also was in the midst of skipping training with his father and this way we ended up like this, lying one some random roof watching clouds and doing nothing.

"Why do you have to train with your father? I thought you finally could go on missions together with Asuma-san again?" I asked my friend thus interrupting the pleasant silence.

"Yeah, but Asuma-sensei gave us 3 days off and my dad thought he could use that time to teach me a new jutsu." he explained desinterestedly.

"How troublesome." I giggled copying the words of the lazy boy next to me and causing him to chuckle.

"What do you think, how long can you skip training?" he then asked. I hummed and stroke my fringe out of my face.

"Hmmmh. If I'm lucky till 1 pm. There I have training with and he hates when I'm late." Shivers rand down my spine by the thought of the punishment I received for my first time being late.

"I wouldn't want to swap places with you." Shikamaru mentioned with Sympathy in his voice.

"Me neither. Especially with that luck of mine." I added as I sat up and looked down the street that run next to the building where we were currently lying on. Shikamaru also sat up slowly and watched me with a raised brow.

"Great they're on my heels." I growled as I felt Guy's and Lee's chakra signatures drawing nearer. And if that wasn't bad already they were approaching from two sides and heading exactly to my location.

"Sorry, Shika-kun. I have to go." I sighted and jumped on my feet to jump down the building and hide in the mass of people on the street. I heard the boy mumbling a "troublesome" and saw him lying back down before I made off.

I used a Henge no Jutsu and masked my chakra to look like an ordinary woman who was interested in the vegetables of the stand in front of her. As I inspected that radish very sceptically I felt the two hyperactive ninjas drawing closer. They even came to a halt directly behind me so that I startled and cold sweat started gathering in the base of my neck. Fortuna really hates me!

"Lee, my loyal and most youthful student, did you find her?" Guy youthfully asked his discible.

"No,Guy-sensei! Her youthfulness was nowhere to be found!" he answered with an just as youthfully loud voice.

"Then there's one one thing left for us to do!" Guy announced with a shiny grin.

"Oh, sensei! What a wonderfully youthful idea!" Lee shouted with watery eyes.

Another shiver rand down my spine. No matter what they planned it couldn't be any good.

They stood with both feet broad on the ground facing in the opposite direction of me. Then they bend back as if to inhale deeply. When they bend forth again they cupped their hands around their mouths and-

"NICCIIIIIIIIIIII~~~~~! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU~~~~~~?"

I fell to the ground with outstretched arms and didn't believe my ears. How embarrassing could those two even be? When the people started to give them strange looks and kept their distance, I became too much for me. A vein pooped on my forehead as I released the henge, then stepped behind the two idiots took their head and smashed them together just as they were about to release the next scream.

"Are you frigging kidding me?" I screamed and instantly backed away as they turned to face me. It was disgusting to watch the duo's tear-stained eyes, their running noses, their very existence! Why the hell did I just do this?

"Nicci~~~! Good we found you! We were afraid you got lost on the way of youthfulness!" they howled as they fell around my neck. So disgusting! I had to suppress the feeling of wanting to puke as I futilely tried to shove the two youthful crybabies off me. God, help me! No wait, this good-for-nothing god is probably sitting in his comfy chair and laughing at me. Curse you, god!

"Come youthful Nicci, so we can make up for the wasted training time with even more youthfulness!" Guy shouted pulling me after him, Lee following us with tears of happiness in his eyes.

* * *

After I actually survived – I don't know how though – that utterly youthful and disgusting training I literally crawled to Ibiki-san's office. As I managed to open the door with my bleach, lifeless and shaking hand, I found an impatiently waiting Jonin, behind him on the wall a clock that showed exactly... 1.02 pm!

"I-I'm sorry I'm late, I-I-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses." Ibiki interrupted me with dunning eyes "Being late for even 1 second can prove to be lethal on a mission. So your punishment will be... 10 more minutes training with Guy and Lee!"

Like a rusty machine I turned my head to the door that slowly opened and showed two hyperactive, pudding-basin haircut and spandex suit wearing, youth obsessed chimps that greeted me with a shiny teeth grin and thumps up.

"How lucky, Nicci-chan! We can bath in our youthfulness for 10 more youthful minutes!"

My eye started twitching and my mouth opened to release a piercing cry.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~~~~~~!"

* * *

9 pm at Asuma's apartment...

Shaking I staggered into the kitchen with a lifeless and emaciated face and found Asuma-san sitting at the table in front of a cup of coffee with a cigarette in his mouth and reading the newspaper. He looked up from his paper and greeted me with a smile.

"Hello, Nicci. How was your day?"

"Too... much... youthfulness!"

* * *

Sooo that was it for this chapter... Hope you enjoyed it! This chapter was rather funny, first I didn't want to but it came out like this. Well otherwise it'd probably be totally boring. Well it is but it could be worse, right?

Well after all that lame training is written I can finally start with the real plot, yay! Well, yay for me and you but not yay for Nicci... She'd hate me if she was real... *sights* okay I guess all my Ocs would hate me, some more than others...

And for those who actually like christmas: merry christmas! And for those who don't: Don't worry, it's over soon!

And at last: please review! I love reviews and I promise next time I'll update faster. This time was just horrible since I couldn't concentrate on his chapter at all. No writer's block, just no concentration! Horrible .


	7. I will always follow you even into death

Oh my God, I'm alive! It has been over a year since my last update... You guys must have thought I'm dead or something... Well much happened and in the end I finally found back to writing again. I also plan on solely concentrating on this story to write it to the end.

So after all this time of not updating I'm happy to say once more, enjoy!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 7: I will always follow you, even into death

It's been two months since the tragic car accident that took the life of Nicole Everett, a 13 years old student. For days it was in the newspapers. A drunk minor, run over by a car, instant death. The people were shocked. How could possibly happen such a tragedy in a peaceful little town like this?

But no matter how terrific or traumatic the event was, time heals many wounds and after those two months normality slowly found its way back into the lives of the mourners. At least for most.

Those were the thoughts of Sam as she looked down at the grave of her best friend with a bitter smile. Even if life returned to normal for most people, for her it was like, when Nicci died, she took her own life with her. She never wanted this to happen. The truth is she wanted to prevent just this outcome!

With a sight she put the white lily in her hands down on the grave, like she did every day since the funeral. Nicci never understood much about flowers but this one suited her and she surely would've liked it, Sam thought.

She slowly got up and left the graveyard, sending one last glance towards her deceased friend's grave. She would never forgive herself for what had happened on that day.

It was October, but autumn came fast and found its way to this remote town. The trees were shedding their leaves, the sky was gray, the air cold and heavy and wafts of mist covered the ground like a blanket, dying the scenery in a dreary gray.

As if Nicci took the Summer with her, Sam mused.

The streets were empty. The adults were at work, the elderly at home hiding from the clammy air and the kids were at school. But she wasn't. Why would she? Nicole wasn't there. Now she was alone. Again. Normally nothing new for her. It was always like that before she moved to this place three years ago. She was always alone, always an outsider.

When her family came here, she thought that it'd be just the same. But that wasn't the case. She found Nicci. Or more precisely, Nicci found her. She was the first to look inside of her, to see her true self and accepted her. For this she vowed to always stay by her side.

She bitterly laughed out. And what now? She saw her best friend die. No, she killed her with her own hands!

Because of Nicci she found friends, got accepted by others. And now she was back to the beginning. Without friends, without ambitions, without a reason to live for. It's not like she intentionally drove away the people that she could have still called friends. No, that honor belonged to someone else...

"Hey, murderer!"

She turned around, her icy glare at the group of boys that approached her, skipping school just like her. The one that called out to her was Stephen. He's also the one that set everyone against her. Words like slut or murderer were only a fraction of the insults people called her since then.

"Why aren't you at school? Too afraid to show up?", he kept shouting. Her eyes narrowed to slits and glared at him scornfully as the group finally caught up to her.

"What do you want, Stephen?" she hissed at the boy. But apart from all the contempt she felt towards him there was this other feeling. This malicious glee that she wasn't the only one that couldn't take Nicci's death. Sure, Nicole's mom became a work-o-holic but this way she could at least distract herself from the loss of her only child. Stephen on the other hand, just like herself, couldn't find a way to digest it. He fell. He hit the bottle, became irascible and short-tempered.

"What I want? What do _you_ still want here? Why can't you just disappear? You're no longer welcome, you little slut!"

"Yeah, just disappear already!"

"Not like anyone would miss you.", his friends joined him and laughed spitefully. But she didn't even flinch. She shot them a cold gaze before turning around to leave. But it wasn't enough for Stephen. He grabbed her forcefully by the shoulder and whirled her around, forcing her to look at him.

"I'm not finished yet. Did you really think I'd just let you get away like that after you killed off Nicci?" he growled.

"You think Nicci would be happy to see you like this?" she retorted icily, making the boy even more agitated.

"What would you know, you whore? I loved her! She was everything to me! I didn't care if she liked other boys as long as she was happy and I could comfort her when she was hurt. And what did you do? Fucking Jake and letting her get run over by a car! Why couldn't it have been you that died instead of her?!"

Sam swatted away his hand. He didn't know just how often she asked herself that question.

Not that it would change anything now. What's gone, that's gone, she knew that much. But she couldn't shake off that feeling that her business with Nicci was nowhere near concluded, that she still could get a chance to make up for her mistakes. And she could always rely on her intuition. Well, except for that one time at Jake's party, she thought scowling.

"What? Nothing to say?" Stephen sneered.

"Not to you.", she countered indifferently and walked away not even deigning him one last glance.

"Hey! Who said you could leave just like that?" he furiously called after her, following her. His two accomplices exchanged worried glances before following the enraged male, afraid he'd do something he would later regret.

Even the girl got scared as she saw him chasing after her. Seems like it all comes to an end today, she thought and started running. She had this feeling that whatever would happen today, would take her one step closer to seeing Nicole again.

That feeling, those forebodings. She had always had them since she could think back. That intuition that something will happen. It's true that everyone has this feeling sometimes but with her it was different. They became real. She often had forebodings of Nicci, sometimes good and sometimes bad ones. Back, when the girl started dating Jake, she had a bad premonition. A really bad one. She saw his glances, how he leered at her. He just took advantage of Nicci to get to her. But that girl was so happy with him. She just couldn't bring herself to tell her the truth. The truth about Jake, about all the time he cheated on her, no matter how bad the premonition may be. That foreboding, stronger than ever on that one day. But what could she do?

Telling Nicci the truth about Jake? It would break her heart. Or maybe she wouldn't even believe her, calling her a liar.

Telling her from the premonitions? She would have laughed at her not taking her seriously. Or worse, she'd regard her as a freak and avoid her.

So what else could she have done? What other path was left for her to take if not the one she chose. Would there have been a better way than feigning the lovesick girl to Jake and convincing him to break up with Nicole before getting rid of him herself, without Nicci finding anything out? Of course she would have been hurt but at least she would have never found out that she was betrayed and lied at all this time. And Sam could have caught her, comforted her. Maybe she would even have finally started dating Stephen. Sam would've prayed for them. Stephen would have done her good. But that was no longer the case. Stephen changed. He was no longer Stephen, not the Stephen that she knew, not Nicci's Stephen.

No, now he was a coldblooded violent Stephen who had nothing of his former kindness left in him. Now he was someone that boded her own end.

But that was okay with her. Maybe this way she could meet Nicci again, could get the chance to tell her how sorry she was and explain her everything. If it was her, she would surely understand. After all she was the same as her. She was something special. Sam had those premonitions and Nicci, Nicci had those eyes. She often noticed it, at school, at the mall. But mostly when the girl was drunk. While others eyes glazed over hers got even sharper. Her observation skills and field of vision both became exceptional. She could make out the tiniest details and even see people that were outside a normal person's field of vision. It was almost like she could _sense_ them.

She was like her. If it was her, she'd definitely understand. She surely would forgive Sam for what she did to her, would understand that everything was just a stupid accident.

Yes, Sam genuinely believed in that. She believed and smiled even as Stephen eventually caught up to her, on the bridge that lead over the main road into town. It was rush hour and many came home from work, so the road was packed, cars speeding through under the bridge.

The traffic noise made it hard for Sam to understand the shouts and yells of Stephen. She only saw his raging face, felt his painful grip on her shoulders and the pain of repeatedly being thrust against the railing. But she didn't care. She just ignored the pain. At last she would see Nicci again. She knew it. She _felt_ it. And her feelings didn't betray her. Not this time.

So she kept smiling. Even as she felt her vertebrae crack from the repeated hits. Even as she lost her balance with the next thrust and slid over the railing. Even as Stephen's grimace of anger and malice was the last thing she saw before she'd impact on the concrete and getting run over by the returning cars. She smiled and knew.


	8. Too much for one day

Hey guys! Guess what? I'm actually updating! Go me!

The plot finally speeds up. And Gaara's first entrance, whoot!

And the only two things I have left to say are "Please review and make this poor soul happy" and , of course, ENJOY!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 8: Too much for one day

It was a sunny Friday in September and my first week of school after summer break was nearing its end. It was still early but I was already at school, sitting in the classroom and sleeping on the table. Stupid bus, that always had to be so early! At least I wasn't the only one, since Stephen had to ride the same bus as me, being my neighbor and everything. And even thought that guy was two years older than me, he still spent almost every morning before school together with me, mostly to keep me from making up for the sleep the bus stole from me.

"I hate morniiiiings." I groaned as I pressed my forehead against the tabletop of my desk.

"But that's no reason to make out with the desk you know, Nicci?" Stephen pointed out grinning.

"I hate you.", I growled.

"Oh why thank you, I love you, too. But with that attitude I doubt you'll find any friends."

"Hey! I very well have friends! For example Lisa and Julia and Marcus and-" I told him counting all the names on my fingers.

"'Kay, 'kay, I get it." he said laughing as I tried to count my classmates on my fingers.

"Morning guys." Julia, greeted as she walked into the room and sat down on the seat in front of me.

"Morning, Julia. You're early today." I remarked pointing out her early entrance.

"My mom had to take a morning shift so she could drop me off at school today. But I didn't think that you guys were already here." she admitted laughing at me as I started banging my head against the tabletop because of my misery.

"Stop it or you'll break the desk." Stephen teased me holding his hurting stomach from all the laughing.

"Ha ha..." I growled and glared at the older boy, which looked more like a pouting kid by the way, but then my eyes wandered off.

"Hey, do we have a new student?"

"Strange since the first week is almost over.", Stephen remarked as he and Julia followed my look.

There by the door stood a girl with a cute face that was framed with a mob of long golden locks. She had a slender body but didn't look fragile and wore short jeans, black boots and a brown jacket over a simple white shirt.

"I heard one more student was supposed to be in our class but for some unknown reason they didn't show up till now. Maybe that's her." Julia whispered eying the new kid suspiciously.

I raised an eyebrow as I watched the girl glancing in our general direction then noticing our stare and quickly looking away, unsure of what to do.

"She doesn't look too tall, maybe I'm actually taller than her?" I wondered out loud almost immediately getting Stephen to laugh at me for the nth time today.

"Like that'd ever happen, Nicci." he retorted smirking.

"Let's see." I remarked smiling and called out to the girl that was still standing at the front.

"Hey, you!" I shouted and got her to look at me once more.

"Can you tell me how tall you are?"

She looked at me warily for a moment as to find out the true intentions behind my questions before answering.

"5,0''. Why are you asking?"

"Nooooo! I'm still the smallest in claaaass!" I cried out and theatrically broke down onto my table crying fake tears.

"Don't cry, poor Nicci. You must accept that you'll forever stay the class dwarf." Stephen cooed and making everyone laugh including me and even the blond girl couldn't hide her giggles.

"Don't worry, being small has its advantages, too." she tried to comfort me now walking over to us.

"Yeah, squeezing trough small holes for example." my supposedly best friend suggested grinning.

"I'm not a rat!" I pouted at him which he responded with messing with my hair.

"Ahh! Save meee." I screamed between laughing, then remembering something. So I boxed Stephen in the side making him flinch and let out a high pitched noise like a girl.

"By the way I'm Nicole but please call me Nicci. And this guy here with the girl scream is Stephen.", I introduced myself and my friend while nudging him repeatedly.

"I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sam if you want." the blond girl replied with a smile.

"I'm Julia, nice to meet you." Julia said making her presence known to us since we seemed to ignore her until now, evil us.

"Hey Sam, if you don't have a seat yet you can sit next to me." I suggested since the seat next to me was still empty and unloved.

"But I'm sitting here." Stephen faked pouted and crossed his arms.

"Oh poor little Stephen. But I'm afraid upperclassmen have no rights to claim seats here." I retorted sticking my tongue out and poking him till he fell from the chair.

"Sam, now's your chance!" I yelled sitting on the boy on the ground still poking him.

"Don't do it Sam! Don't do it!" he shouted and tried to get me off him with a tickle attack.

* * *

"..."

In silence I stared to the sky. A dream? More like a memory that I dreamed. Slowly I sat up without taking my gaze off the skies even once.

"I wonder how they're doing." I mumbled.

"Who do you mean?"

Turning my head I looked into the questioning faces of Ino, Choji and Shikamaru. Now I remembered that I fell asleep while eating lunch together with my ninja friends.

I shook my head.

"Nothing. How late is it?" I asked not wanting to be late for Ibiki's lessons again. Never. Ever. Ever. Again.

"12.30, so you still have some time." Ino answered with a wink.

"Thanks goodness." I sighted and let myself fall back to the ground.

Five weeks had already passed and still no change of my training schedule in sight. I still couldn't keep up with the others physically – even a six year old could beat me according to Asuma; seriously what are they feeding their kids?! - but at least I appear to have a certain talent with this chakra stuff. But due to my strict schedule I could hardly find any time to relax. As a consequence I suffered from constant muscle aches and feel exhausted since the little time I find to sleep isn't nearly enough to replenish the strength and chakra that I use up during training.

"If the training's really so hard for you, why don't you talk to the Hokage? He'll surely unterstand you." Shikamaru suggested as if he just read my thoughts.

"Right. Or talk to Iruka-sensei, he'll definitely be on your side if you explain your situation." Ino added.

"Normally you should've already caught up most academy material. Maybe you can start doing missions soon." Choji said.

"Naah, I'm horrible at taijutsu, they'd never let me." I retorted. Honestly I didn't really like the thought of going on missions. Getting killed while doing the dirty work for others isn't on my things-I-want-to-do-list, so no thank you.

"But last year was this boy that became a genin with just taijutsu. So why can't you become one with just ninjutsu?" Ino asked no one in particular.

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say it's because I'm a stranger that literally fell from the skies and doesn't now anything about this place." I remarked resting my cheeks in my hand.

Seriously, I'm still wondering why they didn't just kill me on the spot, not to mention all this training to make me a ninja thingy.

"Uh, Nicci?"

"Hmmh"

"You still have 10 minutes left. I think you should get going." Ino informed me.

My eyes widened in shock and I jumped to my feet.

"Ah crap, I have to hurry! Bye guys!"

I hurriedly hugged the three of then and then went on my way to the ANBU headquarters to Ibiki. Never evoke Ibiki's anger! Never!

* * *

As I rushed trough the door to Ibiki's office, he was already standing there staring at his watch and impatiently tapping with his left foot.

"Just in time." he remarked his ever present frown deepening.

I turned to look at the watch on the wall and saw the seconds hand just passing the 12. Yes!

After that my training began. As always we started with a little mind battle as a warm-up, as Ibiki likes to call it. For me it's more like Ibiki, as the sadist that he is, just loves to torture me every time before training me. Why so? Well the mind battle mostly consists of him trying with genjutsu to break into my mind while I do everything I can to prevent that. You could compare it with someone who tries to break through the door to your house that's actually your mind and the door being your shield that you have to hold up as good as you can. But unfortunately this man was like Gozilla knocking on a paper wall, not letting me any chance to win this. So what if he won and saw what I did this morning and ate for breakfast, some of you might wonder. Well when the door you braced yourself against gets smashed from Gozilla consequently you get squished under it. And that's exactly what it feels like in my head. Getting mentally squished by Gozilla. Sweet.

And after my 52th loss against the torture and interrogation specialist (seriously, how could I ever stand a chance?!) my training began. But instead of the usual genjutsu and prevention exercises, my teacher instructed me to follow him into another room. There I was already awaited by three official looking old men and twice as much Anbu guards.

"It this the girl?" the man in the middle asked as soon as I had entered the room after my mentor.

"Yes." Ibiki answered.

"She looks weak." the on standing to the right remarked.

"Can she really be of use to us?"

"The council has high expectations on her. We have to take every sensor type we get, even if they're foreigners." the left one added.

'So they're council members?' I thought slowly getting to where this was leading. I didn't like this one bit.

"Well, she'll now have the chance to prove her worth." Ibiki retorted glancing at me as to make sure I was still there. No wonder. I would have already made a run for it if it wasn't for an Anbu member guarding the door.

"Nicole." Ibiki called out to get my attention and motioned me to make a step forward, probably so I can be better stared at. Getting stared at by some old geezers can get scratched from my to-do-list for today.

But since this couldn't be all, he took something out fro god-knows-where and handed it so me.

"What's that?" I asked and stared at the piece of cloth in my hands with some strange chakra-drenched scribbling on it.

"That's a blindfold. The seal on it will prevent you from taking it off on your own. To get rid of it you have to find the person who created the seal who's somewhere in this building and make him unseal it. You have 6 hours starting the moment when you put on the blindfold. Regard this as a test to show your improvements. Any questions?"

"No." I answered swallowing the lump in my throat.

"Then go." he instructed and I did as told and put on the cloth. The moment I ties the ends at the back of my head, I felt foreign chakra from the blindfold flash trough my head and settling in my eyes and a part of my brain.

The first few seconds I got dizzy from having my eyesight robbed, but I quickly could settle down and get used to the foreign feeling. I could still feel the pools of chakra that the people present emitted, but the seal was clouding my senses.

I heard the old men whisper among themselves but couldn't make out exact words. Great. The only thing worse than getting stared at by geezers is getting stared at by geezers while being blindfolded. Not wanting to stay in this room any longer I tried to orient by the chakra everyone was emitting but unfortunately walls and inanimate objects don't have any. So to prevent me from running against walls and table edges and making me the laughing stock of our honourable council members (sarcasm) I had to think of something else.

So I molded a little part of my chakra and sent it out as a wave, using it as a sonar, and moments later having a vivid image of this room echoing in my mind.

"I'm on my way then." I announced and surprising everyone, well everyone except for Ibiki who had, according to my chakra waves, the trace of an acknowledging smile on his lips.

So to the shock of the three council members I found the door without even running against everything and easily found the door knob as if seeing like any other person. As I exited the room a content grin darted across my face because I left three stunned men behind without ruining my act. Take that for staring constantly at me!

First things first, I had to come up with a plan now. I was looking for a person that had the same chakra signature as the seal on the blindfold. Not that hard to distinguish him when I have a sample of his chakra literally in front of my eyes. The more present problem would be how to find my way around here. The Anbu headquarters were like a labyrinth and it could take a whole day to find the right way even if I found the location of the chakra signature. So since randomly running through the whole building isn't an option any more I had to come up with something more clever.

I molded more chakra and altered the waves I was sending out to find the right wavelength that'd allow me to send them through the walls and objects without making them invisible for my let's call it sonar. After four more minutes I found the right wavelength and even thought my vision got a bit blurred (the seal wasn't helping) I could now see a three-dimensional layout of the building in my mind. I was pretty much in the middle, fortunately since sending the waves a too great distance would tire me out in no time.

Now to the next step. Sharpening my senses I tried to make out all the chakra sources that flared up like little blue flames in my layout. I felt like I was part of some hollywood movie where the gangsters with their hightech equipment create these cool 3D images of the bank they want to rob and follow the movements of the guards that were shown on it. Yeah I feel really cool right now.

Not much later I found one chakra signature that coincided with the seal.

'Bingo!' I thought grinning and started to follow the map in my mind, if possible avoiding other Anbu members since you never knew what Ibiki had up his sleeve.

It took me about ten minutes to find to the room my target was located in. I masked my presence and first remained outside the door to review my next steps. Ibiki had mentioned that I had to get them to remove the seal. Which probably meant that a kind "Pretty please?" won't be enough.

Sensing their chakra again I noticed that unlike the Anbu this one had poorer control over him, probably the level of a chunin. I could try genjutsu then.

Making a few hand signs I sent chakra waves in the direction of my target, stimulating the area of their brain that was responsible for sleep.

I heard a yawn and shortly afterwards a faint thud. Quietly I sneaked into the room and saw a man in his mid twenties sound asleep sitting on a chair and his face on the tabletop.

Making some more hand signs I then touched his forehead with my fingers to manipulate his brainwaves and successfully using my genjutsu on him.

* * *

"Asleep while on duty, I see." a gruff voice stated tearing Shouta, chunin and apprentice at the Konohagakure Intelligence Division, out of his sleep. While waiting in his assigned room for some little girl that should try to make him dispel the seal a sudden fatigue came over him and before he knew he fell asleep.

"W...Where? What?" he mumbled still drowsy. But as he saw the huge man in front of him that was Ibiki Morino he jumped to his feet saluting to his superior.

"M-Morino-sama!" he stuttered out ashamed that he got caught sleeping at work.

"Seems that you slept through the whole test." Ibiki scolded his stern glare making the chunin shrink and bashfully averting his eyes.

"Y-Yes sir..." he mumbled the shame unbearable since this was his second week in this department and he didn't want to get removed to another post again.

"Not that it would matter since the girl failed anyway." the interrogation specialist added. Now Shouta first noticed the girl that stood next to his boss. She was still blindfolded but her posture was telling him that she was disappointed about her failure.

"Now that the test is over remove the blindfold. Or would you prefer to go back to sleep?"

"N-No Sir..." he mumbled frustrated by the harsh tone and then took the blindfold off the girl.

But as he loosened the knot he didn't look into the ashamed face of a young girl that had failed but instead the smirking face of a kid that just had got the cookie jar.

Now he noticed how Ibiki's form blurred and then dissipated into thin air only leaving the triumphantly smirking girl in front of him.

"Oh..." was the only word he could say as he slowly realized that he got ripped off by a 12 year old girl that wasn't even a genin.

* * *

"Thanks man." I said grinning as I grabbed the blindfold from the chunin's hands while he was still in shock and made a run for it. I would have never thought that this went so well, I thought while grinning like a maniac. I couldn't wait to rub it into the faces of those old men that I passed the test. In less than an hour to top it off!

After ten more minutes I reached the room where my proctor and the council members were still waiting for my return. But now having my eyesight back my eye-hand coordination started to fail again and so after running into the door with a loud thud I happened to turn the knob so that the door opened and I literally fell into the room.

From my spot on the floor I looked up to the shocked faces of not only the council members but even Ibiki Morino himself couldn't hide his surprise from my entrance.

"I didn't expect you to be back so soon." he stated quickly finding back to his usual emotionless self.

"But it seems that you passed since you have your blindfold off."

"Didn't you say that this test would take her 4 hours at least?" one council member asked sceptically.

"And that the fastest sensor type that succeeded needed two and a half hours to do so?" another added.

"Yes I did. This should proof the capability of this girl's sensor skills." Ibiki stated.

I couldn't help but grin as my mentor actually said something like a praise about me.

The council members exchanged meaningful looks. Then one of them stepped forward and addressed Ibiki completely ignoring my existence. Go on, ignore the person you're talking about, it's not like that was rude or anything.

"I seems that she could actually be of use to the village." he stated then turned to the door without another word. An Anbu opened the door for them as the three men left the room, their motions synchronized like a rehearsed choreography.

I watched them in wonder but didn't have much time to think about the strange habits of those council members since again Ibiki told me to follow him.

We went back to his office and he motioned me to sit down in the chair in front of his desk while he searches the stacks of paper on the desk and looked through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. He handed me the neatly piled up stack of papers and I stared at them warily.

"This is a non-disclosure agreement." he stated.

"For what?" I asked carefully reading through the characters on the first pages. Why do there have to be so many kanji? Why kanji? I just got used to fluently use hiragana and I'm okay with katakana, but kanji? I'm screwed.

"The council decided to assign you to your first mission. I guess it's appropriate to congratulate you."

"A mission?" I repeated disbelievingly. Why would they want me to go on a mission?

"Yes. You will assist in the coming chunin exams. After you sign the agreement I will give you the details." he explained already irritated from my hesitancy. Not like I had a choice anyway.

I heard of the chunin exams from Iruka. They were some sort of competition between the allied shinobi villages and necessary to get the title of chunin.

I nodded and skimmed through the pages trying to understand as much as I could and then signed at the last page to give the document to Ibiki who put it back into a drawer. From what I could decipher it was a standard secrecy agreement form that forbid me of telling any specified details to third parties. So as long as I shut my mouth nothing bad could happen. Only the paragraph about torture through third parties was a bit unnerving from the little I could understand, but something like that couldn't possibly happen. Right?

* * *

Happily I wandered through the streets of Konoha. Why so happy you ask? The answer is simple. After I got the details to my mission (which I'm still suspicious of though) I got a new training plan for the remaining two weeks until the start of the chunin exams. This training will focus on the skills that are needed for my mission and – guess what – taijutsu isn't a part of those required skills! So not only did I get rid of the green jumpsuit duo for the next two weeks and the time the exams are hold, I even got the rest of the day plus the weekend free since my training would start in three days on Monday! Finally I could sleep in! It felt like forever since the last time I could do this. Hard to believe that there are actually advantages to risking their lives for some stupid mission.

So now I strolled through the streets with a wide grin plastered on my face and wondered what I could do with the remaining spare time that I had for today.

I would be able to sleep the whole weekend so this wasn't an option. So I decided to look for my friends and spent the rest of the day together with them.

First I went to Ino but unfortunately she had to help out in the flower shop and couldn't skip on work. Next I went to Choji's house but his mother told me that he was off training with his father and wouldn't be back before late at night. The last one remaining now was Shikamaru.

This mother welcomed me kindly at the entrance to the Nara compound and showed me to their house and to my friend's room. We were doing some small talk while walking through the compound and I couldn't really comprehend why Shikamaru was so afraid of his mother. To me she was a very kind and lively woman. She had a strong-willed personality but it was fitting for an ex-kunoishi and the wife of a renowned ninja, at least in my opinion.

"Maybe you can get him out of bed." she said as we reached Shikamaru's room.

"Sometimes I wonder whether he would die of starvation while sleeping if I didn't wake him for dinner."

"I can imagine that." I answered laughing. If it was Shikamaru he could definitely manage that.

She winked at me with a smug smile before leaving and I shrugged it off. Slowly I opened the wooden door and slid into the barely lit room, closing the door behind me. Though I was already a few time at Shikamaru's house, this was actually the first time I entered his room.

It was sparsely furnished, only a bed, table, wardrobe and bookshelf stuffed with all sorts of books and scrolls. I traced the back of the books with my finger carefully reading their titles. Mostly books about strategy and military tactics but also history and warfare.

In the middle of the room was a small table used for Shogi, the japanese variant of chess but more complex, from what I knew. Maybe I could ask Shikamaru to teach me one day?

The light curtains in front of the window were drawn close to keep some of the sunlight out, enough to comfortably take a little nap.

I noticed something move in the corner of my eye and turned to see a sleeping form on the bed wrapped up in his blanket, only the black hair that stuck out from under the covers gave away the identity of the sleeping person.

I tiptoed to the edge of the bed and crouched down, resting my chin on my folded arms that I placed down next to his pillow.

"If you sleep the whole afternoon you won't be able to sleep at night, you know?"

"Mnmngh..." he mumbled into his covers and buried his face even deeper into his pillow. Quickly he glanced up into my face that was – due to my position – just mere inches away from his.

"What do you want?" he grumbled but it was hard for me to understand him since his already quiet mumbling was further muffled by the pillow.

"Well I got the rest of the day off and wanted to spend it with my friends. And since the others are busy..." I explained ending mid-sentence with a wide grin.

"I'm also busy. Go away." he retorted still not willing to even move an inch.

"Aww come on." I pleaded giving him the puppy dog eyes (Not very effective when he's not even looking at me, I know) "You still have enough time to sleep in the evening. Or are you saying that I'm less important than a little nap?"

Then I started to fake cry and theatrically turned away from him. I heard the covers rustling and felt the movements of the mattress I was leaned against. A triumphant smile darted over my face.

"So what do you want to do?" he asked in a defeated manner now sitting on the edge of the bed looking down at me since I was still sitting on the carpeted floor.

"Dunno. We could stroll through the village and cloud watch or something." I suggested leaning my head back to look into his lazy face.

"So the same as always." he concluded a small smile crossing his face.

* * *

"So what did you do to get the day off? Faked your death?" Shikamaru asked as we strolled along the streets.

"I doubt that would work. I can already hear Ibiki say, death is no excuse to skip training!" I joked laughing.

"No, I actually got a mission and starting monday I'll get some special training and until then I can relax and catch up on some sleep."

"And you think I'd let you?" Shikamaru asked smirking.

"Since you would have to wake up first and go all the way to Asuma's apartment to wake me up, yeah I think so." I replied with a grin.

"Yeah, too troublesome." he admitted with his lazy smile.

"So what is this mission about?"

"Something with the coming chunin exams. Didn't really understand what exactly I have to do though." I answered frowning.

"Asuma-sensei told us about this exam. He wants us to participate. Such a drag." he commented shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Don't you want to become a chunin?" I asked raising one eyebrow.

"I guess." he answered with a tired smile.

Suddenly a cold shiver run down my spine making me halt in my steps. Shikamaru gave me a questioning look but I just stood there my eyes staring straight ahead and cold sweat gathering on my forehead.

Then I saw them. They were three, two boys and a girl. They wore headbands with a foreign symbol on it. According to Iruka-sensei, it was the symbol of Sunagakure, a shinobi village in the Land of Wind. It was really unusual to see foreign ninjas in the village but that wasn't the reason that was unnerving me. It was the smallest of the group, a redheaded boy, and the bloodthirsty aura that he was emitting. And something in his chakra was... Different. This foreign chakra I only felt once before in this Naruto. But in this boy it was much more present. Much more threatening.

Even though the face of the boy was calm and emotionless his killing intent was so strong and present that it paralysed me.

It was Shikamaru who got me out of my stupor. He had followed my gaze and frowned at the trio that was approaching but didn't even notice us. He took my arm and firmly but not forcefully pulled to get me going so we could leave them behind as soon as possible.

I looked to the ground as we neared them. The girl was just talking to the taller boy that wore a black one-piece and make-up about this really cute guy they just met and he only grunted irritatedly as a response.

They were still ignoring us but as they passed right next to us I just couldn't resist and glanced at them just to look the redheaded boy right into the eyes.

Thunderstruck I stopped dead in my tracks staring into the teal eyes of the boy who also came to a halt and just watched me with an emotionless expression.

Now the other two members of their little group also stopped to eye us. Shikamaru tugged repeatedly on my sleeve urging me to follow him, the situation making him visibly nervous.

After a moment of complete silence the boy finally lost his patience.

"What is it?" he asked icily.

I didn't reply immediately, still mesmerized by his teal eyes.

"Your eyes." I mumbled, making him raise a nonexistend eyebrow questioningly.

This eyes. _Her_ eyes. Why is he reminding me so much of her? Why now?

I felt something wet running down my cheeks. Tears? Was I crying?

"What's your problem?" he asked a threatening tone in his voice and his face darkened.

"Gaara, let it be." the girl immediately stepped in as if fearing what would happen otherwide.

"Let's go, Nicci." Shikamaru whispered not liking where this was heading.

I shook my head finally coming back to my senses and averting my eyes.

"I'm sorry, you just reminded me of someone." I mumbled and let myself getting dragged by Shikamaru along the street and around the next corner away from the group.

I sensed the chakra of those three also retreating but kept letting myself get dragged away. After two more turns he finally slowed his pace. On the side of the road was a bench that we sat down on. I was wiping the tears from my face that finally ran dry. Shikamaru sat down next to me leaning back with a sight and mumbling a "troublesome" as he glanced at me.

"So care to explain what happened there just now?" he asked tiredly.

I stared at my hands that rested folded on my lap.

"This boy." I whispered suppressing the sob that wanted to come out of my throat.

"He had the same eyes as her."

"Who's 'she'?" he questioned further but immediately regretted it as the tears started to run down my face again. Shocked from my reaction he pulled away, clearly overwhelmed with the situation.

"I- I didn't mean to... I mean, you don't have to..." he stuttered, not able to handle the sight of tears.

Between two sobs I laughed at his innocent behaviour and once again fought down the tears.

"It's okay." I said. "It's just... It's hard to think about her."

"You don't have to if you don't want to." he said, slowly settling down again.

"No, it's okay. Maybe I will feel better it I talk about it."

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his upper knees as I just leaned back and watched the clouds pass by.

"It's about Sam. She's... _was_ my best friend. We met each other three years ago and were inseparable since. She always supported me, no matter what happened, I could always count on her."

Again a single tear fell run down my reddened cheek.

"What happened?" the boy asked with curiosity in his voice. I lowered my gaze and stared at my hands again.

"She... betrayed me. I would have entrusted my life to her and she betrayed me in the worst way I could think of."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru murmured and settled back against the backrest.

"Mmhmm..." I mumbled and leaned against his chest, the boy glancing at me then looking to the sky.

"Thanks for listening." I whispered.

"Nevermind." he answered in his usual bored voice.

I don't how how long we sat there like that until he finally brought me back to Asuma's apartment.

I didn't realize it until now but this was the first time that I could openly cry about what had happened back then...


	9. And the trouble begins

Hey guys! The next chapter's up, go me!

Unfortunately I'm runnin short of prewritten chapters but I still try to keep up this updating speed for some time.

Now enjoy!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 9: And the trouble begins...

„Just in time, Everett." Ibiki stated his eyes on his wristwatch as I burst into the room. There I got stared at by 20 different pairs of eyes, some being amused others shaking their head or just watching me indifferently.

Today was the start of the chunin exams and I and the other helpers for the first test had to gather in a random room located on the ground floor of the academy before the test would officially start. The first test was a written one and the examiner was Ibiki. I could already imagine the pressure Ibiki would put on the examinees. Even though I knew the course of the test I still couldn't even halfway grasp the extent of Ibiki's skills in physical and more importantly psychological torture, so I didn't want to swap places with any of those genin that'd take the test.

We revised the course of the test and the tasks of us helpers. We were supposed to find those that were cheating while abiding to some rules, for example to only note the ones those actions of cheating could unmistakably be traced back to them. Well, that was the task of the others at least. Mine was to find out those who could not be found or noted by the others and to figure out their abilities. I once asked why I had to do this, wasn't it good enough to pass the tests without us learning about all their abilities? But Ibiki retorted quite angrily that as a ninja I had to fulfill my missions without questioning the reason behind it. That I was a tool and tools don't question, their fulfill their role. Guess I have to get used to this from now on...

"Any questions?" Ibiki asked and nodded as no one replied.

"Good. Then it's about time to get into motion."

Then he formed some handseals and made us vanish in a puff of smoke.

* * *

We reappeared in the room where the first test will take place in a smoke cloud and I had to muster all the body control I had to not just flat out start to cough my frigging lungs out from all the scratching smoke that I inhaled. This wouldn't go down well while being in midst of these chunin and getting stared at by a whole room full of determined genin. So like promised, after the smoke cleared we were greeted by the surprised looks of the examinees and while my colleagues all took in some cool pose I just stood there watching carefully the young ninjas in front of me not even trying to look somewhat intimidating since this would definitely be impossible for me. I was not only a 13 year old girl between grown-up men and women, but I was also so petite that even their smallest uniform was too big for me, so I now looked like an elementary school kid in this oversized grey jacket and baggy trousers.

At least I had a good view over the room and already recognized some teams from Konoha, among them Asuma's team. I had to resist the urge to wave happily at them when I saw their surprised stares of seeing me here act as a helper like all the other chunin. I would be surprised myself regarding my lack of skill for any ninja arts but unlike them I had some weeks to get used to that incomprehensible fact.

Then I saw that boy those eyes were so painfully reminding me of Sam and even though he was seemingly oblivious to me I couldn't help but throw a bitter glance at him. I cursed inwardly. Of course he would be here but I still didn't feel like seeing him yet. Or later. Or the rest of my pathetic life for that matter.

So while Ibiki explained the rules I took my time to thoroughly scan my surroundings and take in every little detail. The first thing I noticed was the additional helper among us. Firstly he wasn't in the room before with us. Secondly I couldn't feel any trace of chakra inside of him, meaning that he not only wasn't human but even a living being at all. And lastly I could see little chakra strings attached to the boy I saw together with the redhead the other day.

A little smile crept to my face. Not too bad, smuggling a fake helper into our rows. There were enough of us that one person more or less would hardly even get noticed.

After finally taking my assigned seat between the other chunin I put the tip of my pencil on the sheet of paper in my lap, eager to note down my first observation. But simply waiting for the start of the test wasn't enough. If I didn't want to catch unwanted attention (more that I already had, being the sole 13 year old between all those grown-up chunin) I had to wait until the first examinees got caught by one of the helpers.

And after 10 minutes of waiting the first genin got careless and three pencils started moving. That was my signal. Quickly I wrote down the activities of the puppeteer, number 79. Then came the mirrors attached to the ceiling lighting and moved with wires by the Konoha kunoishi with buns and Chinese outfit, number 52. I also noticed her scribbling something down on the side of the sheet. Teamwork huh? Also a good way of passing this and making up for the weaknesses of other team members. Too bad I didn't have enough clues to identify her partner but that wasn't of importance right now. So let's move on to the next cheater. That's what I thought before noticing the nervous glances some testees were giving me. Seems like I wrote down too much in one go thus making it seem like I caught a lot of cheaters already. Oops...

But the first signs of chakra usage suddenly caught my attention. Now the real deal began, I thought licking my lips. I got pretty much into this it seems.

First there was the bandages ninja from Otogakure, number 34, that gathered a considerable amount of molded chakra in his ears, sitting completely still as if listening to something, then starting writing with short breaks between. Noted.

Two boys and one girl had the chakra in their eyes slightly changing their signature; through my experience, the sign for a bloodline limit, generally called kekkei genkai. Noted.

My friends, too, finally moved into action. Ino used her family jutsu, Shintenshin no Jutsu or something, and took over the mind of a pinkhaired girl, remembering all the answered the girl solved before (quite impressive regarding the difficulty level) and copied them before using the jutsu on her colleagues. I noted it down and released a sight of relief. At least they were save for now. Until the tenth question that is but that too shouldn't be a problem for them, I hoped.

Now the next one was... I gulped. So the redhead finally made a move, huh? With his eyes closed he molded a small amount of chakra and formed a couple of seals. A shiver ran down my spine. Something about him didn't feel right. I just couldn't put my finger on what exactly that was.

Absorbed by him I watched as he sent some sand grains into the eyes of his victim. The boy squeezed his eyes shut and tried to rub the sand out of them. The redhead used that distraction to form with the remaining sand an eye that was hovering over the desk and studied the answers.

I rested my cheek on my hand that wasn't holding the pencil and mustered the Suna-nin. I may was afraid of him and he reminded me so much of Sam that it hurt but I had to admit that this boy had pretty interesting tricks up his sleeves. Even his aura of bloodlust had almost completely vanished due to him concentrating on his jutsu. This way right now he appeared less frightening to me and I also noticed that his face was not half that bad either.

I got ripped from my thoughts when the first team got failed. In that moment Gaara stopped his jutsu and now noticed me staring at him. He gave me a glare and I quickly looked down on my notes, ashamed and embarrassed. Not only did I stare at this guy for no apparent reason, I even neglected my duties. So I quickly noted him and then continued with my task, careful to avoid making eye contact with the redhead for the rest of the exam.

* * *

CLASH!

The noise of shattering glass filled the room and I dived to the side as a bundle of cloth crushed through the closed window beside me and unfolded itself to reveal a banner that said "Contratulations" and a woman standing in front of it. Anko Mitarashi. Jonin and examiner of the second test, making her my next superior. Of all the examiners she was the only one I totally couldn't get along with. She was rude, conceited and inconsiderate. Not to mention her lack of manners and respect.

So now I was cautiously picking the shards of glass from my jacket while I glared at her and a smug smile crept to my face as I watched her making a complete fool out of herself in front of all the genin and chunin alike. _Deserves you right!_

After Anko went with the remaining genin teams to the next testing site and the helpers were dismissed I was left back, patiently sitting in my seat, watching Ibiki until he finished collecting the test sheets. I could swear I even saw him smile over one particular sheet of paper!

Then he put them down in a neat pile on the desk in the front and sat down in the chair behind it. Then he finally looked at me for the first time since the test ended as if remembering my presence only just now.

"Now, Everett..." he said and motioned me to come closer. I complied and put my results in front of him. I was a bit proud of myself to write 2 whole pages with observations solely based on the facts I saw and completely avoiding personal assumptions.

After a minute that felt like an eternity he put down the report and leaned back massaging the bridge of his nose.

"Is... is something wrong?" I asked hesitantly. I wondered what I did wrong. I was so sure of myself this time!

"I know I taught you to encode gathered information, Everett." he explained and put the report in front of me. "But that doesn't apply for this mission with secure surroundings."

My eyes widened in understanding as I glanced at the sheets of paper. Not only did I write with western letters instead hiragana etc. I also unconsciously wrote in my mothertongue instead of japanese. No wonder he couldn't read it!

"Rewrite it again. And this time without encoding it."

"Hai, sensei..."

So after 10 more minutes of rewriting everything I again submitted the report and hoped to please my mentor this time after the first blunder.

"Practice your handwriting. And use more kanji. Even first year academy students can do better."

"Hai, sensei..."

* * *

A/N: After rereading the manga I pondered about all those chunin that were watching the genin in the first test. And I wondered how e.g. Tenten or Kankuro could pass the test with their methods. especially Kankuro, since they even pointed out his puppet. So what you read in this chapter was my conclusion to this question.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you like to, you can leave me a review ;)


	10. Stop laughing, that's not funny!

Hey there! Happy new year and I hope you enjoyed your holidays!

Some might have noticed that some chapters ago I stopped thanking everyone who was so kind to review at the beginning of a new chapter. That's because I was afraid that some might don't want to be especially mentioned, so I decided to just leave it be. But I'm still grateful for every review that I get from you lovely people and still jump of joy every time I get one. If my wonderful reviewers are actually okay with getting mentioned in this lovely space on the top off my stories, just tell me and I'll start again doing so. If you don't want to or simply don't care I'll leave it as it is.

I also decided that I 'll stop promise you guys anything anymore regarding updates since I seem to fail every-frigging-time to keep my promises. Stupid life getting in my way..

I stalled you guys long enough, so here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 10: Stop laughing, that's not funny!

„Here are your dango, Anko-san." i mumbled slightly irritated while giving the plate with Japanese sweets to the jonin. The second test of the chunin exams just started and I was already used as an errand boy/girl and had to run through the whole village getting some juice, mangas or like this time her favorite sweets, dango.

I was aware that on the first day I didn't have much work as a helper but for almost an hour I did nothing but running through Konoha while getting bawled at for being oh so slow. It was only thanks to Asuma's harsh training that I was even able to run that much in such little time and she dared to insult me for that? Oh how I loathed her...

"Finally! What took you so long?" Anko barked at me while she practically tore the junk food from my hands and shoved the first dango in her mouth.

"Then get it yourself." I mumbled surly. Unfortunately she heard me and drew a kunai which she pointed to my throat.

"Watch your mouth, brat. I could kill you before you even had the chance to beg for forgiveness." she threatened and then smirked at me sadistically. "Or I could talk to Ibiki. I'm sure he'll teach you some respect for your superiors."

A shiver ran down my spine. She knew how frightened I was of that man. And I had all reason to. After all he was the leader of the Department for torture and interrogation.

So all I could do was to make a sullen face and glare at the patch of grass to my feet. Oh how much I loathed that woman!

Since Anko started to ignore me and continued shoving all those sweets in her mouth I strolled to the stall where the scrolls had been distributed earlier and sat down on the table. Anko sat on its roof, how that could be in any way comfortable, I don't have a clue.

After a few minutes in silence – and the loud chewing noises coming from the woman above me – I decided to try and start a conversation.

"Uh, Anko-san?"

"Whaff fo wou wanf?" she asked, not even caring to swallow the half chowed sweets in her mouth before replying.

"Will I have any other tasks in this test beside getting you... stuff?" I asked hesitantly, mustering all my self-control to sound somewhat polite. Not an easy task if you have to drown noises that sounded like a starving pack of wolves feasting on a small rabbit.

I heard her gulping down the mass in her mouth and humming while in thoughts.

"I guess you'll have the same task as the other chunin. That is congratulating the teams that made it with both scrolls to the tower, then explaining the motto of the exams to them. But the first ones shouldn't be there before tomorrow."

I jumped off the table and stepped forward to be able to look her sceptically in the eyes.

"But how should I do that? Since I'm here and not at the tower." I asked questioning her explanation.

"With transportation jutsu, of course. What do you think the seal is for, that they handed out to you? Didn't Iruka and Ibiki teach you anything?" she retorted and gave me an are-you-an-idiot-look.

I clutched the piece of paper in my pocket. Some random guy shoved it in my hand when the second test started, not explaining anything. It had a strange seal on it, one that Iruka-sensei didn't teach me yet.

How I'd love to smack that expression out of her face. Transportation Jutsu, my bum. I came from a world of technology without those Chakra-magic-stuff. Not that they knew, of course. But how in the world could teleportation ever be so self-explanatory?

Anko on the other hand just theatrically sighted and facepalmed as if I was the one not making any sense.

"You really don't know anything, do you?"

"That's because no one tells me anything." I mumbled with a sour face. That expression threatened to get permanent if it went on like that.

"We'll head for the tower in a few minutes anyway. The staffroom's at the highest floor. You can stay there with the other chunin and wait for orders, understood?"

I suppressed a growl from her degrading tone and just nodded instead.

The next minutes Anko spent eating the remaining dango and throwing toothpicks at a tree, forming the symbol of Konoha with them. Meanwhile I sat in the grass leaning against the stall and watched the clouds. One of my favorite hobbies since I stranded in this world.

Just as the woman threw the last toothpick I felt a gust of wind picking up and mere seconds later a chuning appeared out of thin air. At least it seemed that way for the normal eye. This technique was called Shunshin no Jutsu and was a D Rank jutsu. Iruka told me in one of his lessons. You canalize chakra to travel at a speed invisible for the human eye covering a certain distance. This distance can be increased with years of training.

Said chuunin turned to Anko.

"Big trouble, Anko-sama!" he shouted agitatedly but the kunoishi didn't share his excitement.

The only thing that made me wonder in that situation was that man's choice of suffix for his superior. I always thought -sama was used for high ranking persons like the hokage or the feudal lord to show one's respect. And here he was, using it for a jonin. Anko at that! But maybe the use of honorifics varied for every person's own point of view. At least no one ever complained about me using -san.

So this guy reported about a corpse discovery which still wasn't interesting enough for the kunoishi to wipe that bored expression off her face. Only when he said that there was something off with the corpses she started to show interest and vanished together with the chunin, using the sae jutsu the man used earlier to appear.

I was left behind and shook my head in resignation. What a cold world, where a corpse discovery wasn't even enough to create a frown on one's face not to mention to cause horror. I for my part have never seen a dead body in my whole life and I'm not planning to change that fact any time soon. But maybe that would get harder than expected in this ninja world full of violence and death.

Letting out a sigh I watched the blue sky. Judging by the position of the sun it was afternoon and it was not even two hours into the second test.

If Anko was held back by those "strange" corpses for some more time, then I'd finally have some spare time all to myself.

A smile grazed my lips. I lay down in the grass to watch the clouds and dozed off. The last weeks were tiring after all, so I couldn't let this rare chance of a break slip my fingers.

Unfortunately not even three minutes later a cold shiver ran down my spine. I didn't even have the time to wonder where this feeling came from when some sort of inhuman force started to tear on my body and sucked me into the seal in my pocket.

* * *

Next thing I knew was that the same force restored my body. I found myself in a cloud of smoke but unfortunately I couldn't feel the floor under my feet. This resulted in me dropping down and painfully landing on my butt.

"Those dumb ninjas with their dumb techniques!" I cursed and coughed the remaining smoke out of my lungs. But three familiar chakra signatures let the alarm bells in my head ring and my head snapped up with nervousness.

'These signatures. It couldn't be...' I thought as I used my enhanced eyesight to watch the three figures in front of me through the smoke. And what I saw didn't please me one bit.

I was sitting on concrete floor between two spread out scrolls that were seemingly the tools for the summoning jutsu that brought me in this situation. And with this situation I didn't mean me sitting on the floor in front of a ninja trio. I meant sitting on the floor in front of the three persons I wanted to meet the least in this damned test: the three genin from Suna!

The last smoke clouds were gone together with the shelter they provided me and now I fell victim to their intense stares. What a great turn of events. Not. But somehow I couldn't get myself to be surprised. Of course something like this would happen to me!

"Seriously? Konoha really must be one load of crap village if even weaklings like this brat get admitted as examiners." the big one scoffed haughtily.

A vein popped on my forehead. Angrily I got up and batted the dust off my clothes as I shot him a glare.

"And that comes from some guy that still wears rompers and plays with make-up."

That hit him unprepared and he blankly stared at me with a bewildered look and a slightly opened mouth.

"Well, Kankuro, I have to agree with her there." the only girl of the team said while laughing and playfully hit the boy's side with her elbow.

The large boy cleared his throat to get back his composure but irritation of the humiliation was still evident on his face.

"So what exactly do you want?" he questioned.

"Well I'm here to congratulate you for passing the second test of the chunin examination and I.. uh.. should explain the motto of the exams to you I guess." I said glancing at the huge scroll on the wall behind me when I said the last sentence. So in short I explained about the heaven being wisdom and the earth being strength and one should train whatever it is that they lack of. And neither me nor them were really interested in whatever I had to say that's why I made it short and after I finished I told them that they could do whatever they wanted till the five days were up.

But as the two older members of the team turned to leave and I, too, wondered where exactly I could find the staffroom I noticed that the shortest of the trio, the redhead, still hadn't moved an inch.

"Is something the matter?" I asked hesitantly and the other two also noticed that their partner wasn't following them.

The boy stared at me with a seemingly calm expression on his emotionless face, but that didn't hide the dark aura that the boy was emitting. A cold and foreboding aura that sent shivers down my spine.

I gulped and wanted to say something but found myself being unable to. As if the tension in the air was so thick that it tried suffocate me.

"G-Gaara, don't you think that we should go now?" the blonde girl hesitantly asked, not liking the silence of her little brother.

"So we can do whatever we want?" he finally spoke up, his question directed to me. The question seemed harmless but his looks said something completely different. As if he tried to dagger me with only his glares.

My hands trembled and as I spoke up I found my voice slightly shaking.

"Y-Yes. There are several lounges that provide you with books and means of entertainment." I explained with a nervous smile, but unable to steady my voice.

"So if I want to see blood?" he continued, a crazy smirk creeping on his face.

My forced smile fell. Forget politeness, I was on the verge to hyperventilation.

In horror I watched as he crept closer, his bloodthirsty aura transforming to a deadly shadow hovering over the boy whose facial expression kept turning more and more maniacal.

"Y-You know. E-Even if I'm no ninja, I'm still an examiner of this test. S-So if you even lay a finger on me not mention kill me, you'll definitely get disqualified. And you've come too far to risk that, don't you?" I managed to say after getting out of my stupor.

"She's right Gaara. We can't fail now." The girl agreed with me, cold sweat on her forehead.

"Y-Yeah, don't forget our mission." Her teammate confirmed. At least I wasn't the only one afraid of that boy. A small comfort for being about to be killed, but better than getting cheered on by some sadists that enjoy watching me getting slaughtered. Like some good-for-nothing-God whose name I don't want to mention here. But you know who I speak of, you stupid God!

Seconds felt like years as the tension silenced even the birds outside the tower. You could have heard a pin dropping. My heartbeat raced and throbbed in my ears, but I could see the same happening with the other two in the room, my vision allowing me to see the violently throbbing aorta of the girl and the sweat gathering on the older boy's forehead.

After this agonizing moment of silence the redhead let out a grunt and turned his back on me, breaking the tension that threatened to suffocate me. The two teens let out a sight of relief and I also released the breath that I had held unconsciously.

Then things started to happened really fast.

I watched his chakra react and sand grains gather and dived to the side, dodging the mass of sand that lunged at the spot I occupied just a moment ago.

I rolled over the ground and used the remaining momentum of my evasive manoeuvre to jump back to my feet, holding my right shoulder that got hurt from the impact when it hit the ground.

"No Gaara!" I heard the girl scream but didn't pay too much attention to her since all my senses right now were too occupied right now with foretelling his moves and letting my body evade the sand pillars he shot at me. But my body was still too sluggish and slow to keep up with my sight. So every jump and every dive made it barely out of the way. But with every dodge I made him more aggressive and and his attacks became faster. Simultanously my stamina depleted and I got slower and slower. Adrenaline raced through my body as I ran for my life but to no avail. After merely two minutes of evading the pillars of sand I made my biggest mistake. While I resorted to running up the high wall of the building a sandpillar lunged at me and my only way to dodge was to jump. And that's where I sealed my fate. In mid air I was unable to act and as the sand flashed towards me all I could do was to roll my body over and let the sand clutch my right leg and pin me against the wall behind me. My skull impacted on the hard concrete and a sharp pain shot through my head which clouded my vision and made me see stars.

I felt sand moving me away from the wall and after I managed to open my eyes again I found myself floating head down above the ground just in front of the redheadded boy.

With the sand clutching only my right leg, the left one was folded and my arms dangled down helplessly while my oversized vest slid down my torso revealing my bellybutton, making me look like The Hanged Man of some tarot cards set. I felt so powerless. So vulnerable.

With a demonic smirk on his face he eyed me like a predator its prey. His eyes reminded me of a cat that watched the mouse it held between its claws. A low chuckle escaped his throat.

"Stop laughing, that's not funny!" I screamed out of frustration, interpreting his actions as a sadistic form of amusement about humiliating me.

That seemed to break the trance of bloodlust he was in. He blinked two times as if he wondered where he was and what happened but quickly found back to his old emotionless self.

The sand around my leg dissolved and I let out a short scream as I painfully collided with the ground. Thanks goodness I wasn't floating too high.

"You're lucky that you're an examiner. So I won't kill you. Yet." he stated and turned making his way to the stairs where he passed his teammates. There he turned to them and glanced at them indifferently.

"What are you waiting for?" he growled and waked them from their stupor. They quickly followed him, not daring to lose another word about what had happened just now.

I watched them leave and after I sensed enough distance between their chakra and myself I finally dared to relax and slowly got up, standing on shaking feet and holding my hurting head.

Spending the next 20 minutes with wandering around the maze-like corridors I finally arrived at the staffroom.

Entering the room and closing the door behind me I found two chunin relaxing on the couches that were standing in the center of the room right in the front of an old TV. Behind them were big windows with heavy dark green curtains drawn closed to block out the sunlight. Bookshelves ranged along the walls that were packed with books, scrolls and video tapes for the old recorder that was placed in the board the TV was standing on. One of the ninjas was lying on the couch while reading a magizine – Shinobi Daily judging by the cover. The other one sat on the second sofa, hunched over with a remote in his hand fast-forwarding a video, his other hand supporting his head boredly.

_'Tube television but no cars... Strange world...' _I thought while I sat down on the end of the couch the one with the magazine was lying on. Said guy lowered the publication to pierce me with suspicious looks.

"What does some brat want here? Are you a genin?"

"Hey, that's the girl that was chosen by the Third to help out with the chunin exams." the other one exclaimed, rudely pointing a finger at me.

"And as if some genin would have already made it that far." the first one added laughing, the other man joining in the laughter of his partner.

"What are you two talking about? The reason why I'm here is because I was summoned by the scrolls when a genin team arrived."

"What?!" both shouted in unison.

"Uh yeah. You can go and check for yourselves if you don't believe me. Those guys should be somewhere in this tower."

I hardly ended my sentence when the two men stormed out of the room leaving only a dustcloud behind.

I shrugged and stripped off my ninja sandals to lie down on the couch and stared at the ceiling.

I thought about the Suna boy and what had happened. I thought about the fear of death I felt when his attacks chased me, the horrendous feeling his murderous aura inflicted in me. But mostly I thought about his eyes. Those deep, teal eyes.

"They are just like hers." I mumbled and again sorrow and frustration flooded my mind while I thought about Sam.

What was it that his eyes held the same expression as hers. It wasn't the bloodlust and hatred in them. It was something else. But I just couldn't place my finger on it.

Letting out a frustrated sight I turned to my side and noticed the magazine that the chunin had read before throwing it on the ground when running off with his friend. I lazily picked it up and a second magazine slipped out of it from lifting it. I glanced at the cover and a grin spread across my face while shaking my head at the man. Porn. Of course.


	11. Heaven, Earth and everything in between

Hey there! Finally another update, yay!

Thanks for those lovely reviews and thanks to all you wonderful people that actually read my story! I love you all!~~

Since eyams are just 'round the corner and Physics finally succeeded in killing my brain, I tried to resurrect it with updates! Now I have to find a way to survive that Prof with his random exams... Without killing my brain again... Some people were seriously worried that I finally lost it!

So here's another chapter for you my lovely readers, so enjoy!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 11: Heaven, Earth and everything in between

"Hahaha, seems like you had your share of trouble out there." I said laughing and amusedly leaned forward to the three teens in front of me.

"But you're finally here. You guys made me worried, you know."

"Tze, if those two slackers wouldn't have dawdled, we could have arrived much sooner." Ino scoffed pointing with her thumb to the two males next to her. These two returned the nice gesture with rolling their eyes.

"And if you didn't have to butt into team 7's troublesome fight, we not only would have already arrived at the tower but also averted a lot of trouble." Shikamaru countered with his annoyed attitude and Chouji nodded approvingly while munching on his favorite BBQ-flavored chips.

I didn't reply anything and kept laughing. I knew Shikamaru well enough by now to know when he really was serious about something and that he would never leave a friend in trouble behind. He just had to stick to his reputation as the Number 1 slacker of Konoha and complain about everything that made work for him.

So the sullen boy sighed and sat down on one of the sofas that was standing in the lounge we were occupying right now.

"So troublesome. I hope the exams are over soon." he mumbled. I snickered and slumped down next to him, Choji taking his other side.

"Don't worry, just a little bit more and you made it." I said encouragingly and winked at him with a broad grin which he replied with a light smile.

"But it's great that we got the chance to meet you here." Ino remarked happily sitting down next to me.

"Yeah, I was lucky to get summoned by you." I beamed. Thinking back, that really made my day. Especially after my first summoning that is...

* * *

_PUFF!_

_WAMM!_

"_Ouch, damn it!" I cursed as again after the summoning I landed hard on my butt. Stupid summonings always being so sudden!_

_And again familiar chakra signatures caught my attention. But unlike the last time, now a broad grin spread across my face. The smoke didn't dissolve yet but I already jumped to my feet and tacklehugged the nearest person to me._

"_Shikamaru, Ino, Choji! You did it!" I cried out of joy as I clung to the girl's neck._

"_Nicci?" the three genin asked disbelievingly. I released the blonde to continue giving a hug to each of the boys. Then I took a step backwards to eye the victorious team in front of me proudly._

"_I'm happy to inform you that you officially passed the second test of the chunin exams. As a tester I'll now explain this year's motto to you." I pointed behind me where the huge scrolls with the motto written on it were hanging on the wall._

"_Heaven refers to the human mind. And Earth refers to the human body. So basically if you lack intelligence, study hard and if you lack strength train hard. And if you're smart as well as strong, you don't have to be afraid of anything. Or something like that."_

"_Yeah, that's what an examiner should say." Shikamaru retorted with a crooked grin and I smiled back sheepishly. _

"_Just be happy that you made it." I replied quickly and stuck my tongue out._

_Relief was seen on their faces as team 10 cheered for their success. But one thing still bugged them._

"_Nicci, how come you're here?" Ino asked confused._

"_Right, in the first test, too." Choji noted._

"_Well, I got this mission to help out in the chunin exams. And somehow I ended up as one of those official helpers." I summarized with a clueless smile. Seriously, what were the higher-ups thinking?_

"_And they still didn't find a fitting uniform for you?" Ino mused as she watched my petit body getting eaten by my oversized clothes. I was still wearing the too big vest with the sleeves completely covering my fingers and the gray trousers dangled loosely around my legs with the ends stuffed into my sandals so I wouldn't trip on them. _

_I just shrugged my shoulders._

"_I guess the rented uniforms are all one size."Seems no one ever expect some girl like me needing one."_

"_You mean, some girl as _small_ as you." Shikamaru added with a lazy grin._

"_I'm just reduced to the best." I huffed and stuck out my tongue at him._

* * *

"But you're really tiny." Ino mused, probably thinking back just like me.

Although I was one year older than the others, with 4.8" (1,46m) I was still the smallest of them. 'Them' being the rookie 9. I was even smaller than Naruto!

"It's not my fault. No one of my family ever grew that tall." I defended myself. Stupid genes making me a midget. And why did they have to make fun of my height? They aren't that much taller themselves!

"Maybe you should eat more." Choji suggested, making Ino roll her eyes.

"Then she'd only grow in breadth, fatty."

"What did you call me just now?!"

"You heard me, fat ass!"

"Troublesome." Shikamaru mumbled and inconspicuously moved to the sofa diagonally to the occupied one to avoid the crossfire, me sticking to his heels. So while the two squabblers were at each others throat on one sofa, we made ourselves comfortable on the second one.

"So, tell me. How did you get your earth scroll?" I asked the lazy boy efficiently ignoring the shouting of the other two.

"We came across a team that looked quite worn out. They probably just battled another team successfully taking their scroll since they had both scrolls, so it was an easy win for us." he explained boredly and rested his arms on the backrest.

"Aw, that's mean." I cooed and poked his side. It made him cringe but he was too lazy to do more than that what made me laugh.

I nestled into his side and made myself comfortable ignoring his strange looks. "I'm really happy that you made it." I said softly, bathing in the heat the boy's body was emitting.

We remained in that position while watching our friends trying to rip each other into shreds. Nobody was seriously worried that they'd actually hurt each other, since this situation was nothing new. Every here and then Ino'd provoke Choji to get him into fights. Asuma'd then always say that this was Ino's way to show her affection or something of those lines. If she didn't fight with Choji she'd nag on Shikamaru. But I think there's more to it. My theory was that she simply tried to act strong. You don't have it easy as a kunoishi, you're not allowed to show any weakness. That's what I already learned in my training to become a ninja.

But that was okay. The boys knew this after all. And it did them good that at least someone called the shots and kept them on the run, I thought grinning.

"Hey, do you two really have to flirt right in front of our eyes?" Ino grumbled and glared at us. Shikamaru simply ignored her with a sullen look while I glanced at her with a cocked eyebrow.

"You're one to say."

"What do you mean with that?" the blonde asked skeptically while trying to fix her messed up ponytail.

"Teasing is a sign of affection. Well, third grade affection but it seems to apply here oddly well. And since you _love_ picking on Choji so much..." I explained with a sly grin.

"Then you must really have the hots for me, Ino." Choji remarked also grinning, even though the grin looked weird since his cheek was swollen from one of Ino's punches.

"Che, as if any girl would actually fall in love with you, fatso!"

"What did you just call me?!"

"And here they go again." I sighed but couldn't suppress a small grin.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru affirmed.

And still leaned together we enjoyed round two of Ino and Choji's daily quarrels.

"Shika?" I asked after 10 minutes of Ino and Choji still being at it.

"Hm?"

"I can't get that strange motto out of my head."

"The motto?" the boy inquired with a questioning look.

I nodded.

"Well I possess neither heaven nor earth. How could I ever become a decent ninja this way? And should I really become one anyway? Sensor abilities are well and fine, but what good do they do if I can't even survive two minutes on a battlefield?" I explained and huffed in frustration. The smart boy reflected on my words for a moment. Finally he sighted and his gazed lingered in the distance.

"There's more than heaven and earth. There still exist so many things in between. In my opinion it's not necessary to send you to the battlefield. Your gift is far too valuable to risk it in battles. And there are far better ways to exploit your full potential." he explained with a seriousness in his voice that I wasn't used to hear, making me look up at him. I didn't doubt his intelligence one bit and this time, too, I knew I could fully trust his estimation.

"You know." I said with a wide smile "You're really fit to become a teacher. Maybe Asuma rubbed off on you?"

He rolled his eyes irritatedly and opened his mouth to answer but I beat him to it.

"But you're right. I just hope that the higher-ups come to realize that. And hopefully soon!"

Then I gave him a sweet smile as I said those next words.

"Thank you. Really."

Shikamaru averted his eyes, a pink gleam on his cheeks.

"No problem." he mumbled. "Che. Girls."

I snickered, then stood up to pull Ino off Choji while she tried to strangle the plump boy, because he said something against her beloved Sasuke.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru grumbled before he too got up to help his best friend fend off the blonde.

* * *

Whoopdidooh! NicciShikaFluff! Even I have my romantic moments here and then!

So enjoy this fluff as much as you can since the next chapter will be e~~vi~~l! *sings*

If you wanna, leave me a review to tell me your thoughts. Reviews als always appreciated and keep me from going nuts~~!


	12. One dark night

Hello again!

First thanks for alle the lovely reviews, favs, alerts and everyone that reads my sotry! Love you all~~!

Reply to guest review:

Ellie: Thank you! Nicci wouldn't really have fit into team 7, she would have gotten herself killed in no time since team 7 is a magnet for trouble! This kind of behaviour from 13 year olds is sadly quite common where I live so I thought I could use it and without making it seem too unrealistic. Just remember: don't drink when being underage or you'll get run over by a car! ;)

Apart from that I don't have much to say apart from enjoy!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 12: One dark night

It was in the dead of the night and the crescent moon stood high in the sky. Stars cast their soothing light upon the world beneath them and wrapped the Forty-Fourth Training Ground, also called the Forest of Death, in treacherous silence.

While the beasts of the forest were asleep and no bird could be heard, the soon-to-be chunin were lying in wait, in search of unwary genin that hoped to have found a secure shelter for the night.

An in the midst of this forest filled with dangers and scattered dreams, there rose a single tower from the treetops that silently and unwaveringly surveyed the woods beneath and bathed in the light of the sparkling stars.

On the roof of said building, there sat a boy. The night air brushed against his red hair and light but sturdy clothes that were usually worn by the residents of the desert.

He sat there motionlessly, like a predator that patiently lay in wait for its prey, and listened to the screams of teams under attack that the wind carried to his ears. He didn't move. His dark emotionless face didn't waver. But the boy could feel how the desperate screams were waking his bloodlust. His demon. But he didn't move. He waited. Impatience was the enemy of the predator.

* * *

"No... Don't... Look out... Please..." the girl mumbled in her sleep as she restlessly rolled around on the cot. She was drenched with sweat, tormented by a nightmare. Her eyelids twitched, her body trembled, her hands stretched out as if she was trying to grab onto something while the dream kept torturing her.

"Sam!" she screamed her eyes now wide open as she finally woke from the nightmare.

Drowsily she rubbed her eyes, wiping away tears that hid in the corner of her eyes. Slowly she sat up and and looked around. She made sure that she was still in the bedroom for helpers, that this was reality and not the dream. That she only dreamed about her former best friend suffering and struggling. How in the end she got pushed from a bridge by a indistinguishable person and welcomed her nearing death.

Nicci shook her head, a pathetic try to get rid of those thoughts. The room suddenly felt stifling and oppressive to her. She slipped on her oversized jacket and tiptoed with bare feet out of the room anxious not to wake the still sleeping chunin. It was a miracle they didn't wake up from her scream, she thought.

The hallways of the tower were dark and silent. The only noise that could be heard were the light footsteps of the girl's naked feet as she sneaked through the darkness.

It was cold and she shuddered after the warmth she still had from the bed was finally gone. But she didn't care, she was even thankful for it. The cold air cleared her mind. She knew one of the countless stairs inside this tower leads to the roof. And fresh air would do her good, she decided and went to look for the right way to the roof.

* * *

Again a scream reached his ears and let the boy look up. This scream was different than the ones before. It came from inside the tower and was more like a short yelp. Like someone got startled or woke up from a nightmare.

His teal orbs lit up golden for the fraction of a second as the demon inside him stirred. It was time.

He slowly rose from his spot on the edge of the roof where he was sitting motionlessly for the past few hours and directed his piercing gaze to the door that led to the inside of the building, bloodlust reflecting in his eyes.

The prey made its first step. Now it was time for the predator to make his move.

And with that in mind he slowly made his way inside.

* * *

One could see that this building was already past its prime. The long and dark corridors smelled of dust and mold. Behind the wood paneling you could hear the quiet pitter-patter of mice and here and there loose deck boards would groan under the weight of a person stepping on it.

Even the architecture was telling stories of some decades ago. In contrast to the modern style with well-lit open rooms and halls, the tower bears witness to a time of uncertainty and anxiety, where architecture meant to defend oneself from intruders. While the exterior reminded of a fortress of some sort, its interior was like a maze of corridors and stairs, of corners and turns, all seeming to lead somewhere but arriving nowhere.

And in this maze of nearly identical corridors and rooms Nicci wandered about looking for the correct way to the rooftop.

Even though she already spent two days inside the tower she never took time to explore it and now she regretted it. She was tired and sleepy, her senses dull and clouded with fatigue. This didn't really help her situation since she began to lose her way in the darkness.

After some more steps she stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the hallway. The never ending search was frustrating, she was tired and she even had almost forgotten why she was heading for the rooftop in the first place. Well, almost.

She decided to get back and find some more sleep before she had to continue her troublesome duties as a chunin-assistant at dawn, when she suddenly heard footsteps.

These weren't the quick steps of mice or rats. They were the skilled footsteps of a human that tried to be as silent as possible while walking over those old deck boards.

Normally Nicci would try to get away as fast as possible but the lack of sleep made her mind cloudy and temporarily deactivated her common sense. Thus she now got curious and started to approach the footsteps to find out to whom they belonged

So she followed the corridor where the steps came from, not entirely sure why she wanted to find their source.

She went through a hallway here, a turn there, until eventually the girl reached the person she was looking for. Her senses slowly came back to her as the sleepiness faded and she was now able to sense the chakra of the searched for person. Unluckily they were still too numb to let her assign the chakra to anyone. She also remembered that part of the tower. It was the genin section where the teams were accommodated while waiting for the end of the 5 day deadline.

Slowly she realized that her whole endeavor hasn't been very smart. But just as she turned around to slowly get the hell out of there, she noticed the glow of a candle that would any moment now turn around the corner. Glued to the spot she watched the light getting brighter, the careful footsteps getting louder.

Then she could finally see the candle turn the corner, then a slim arm, a white nightgown, long smooth legs, small naked feet, flowing blonde hair, drowsy blue eyes.

"Ino!" Nicci cried out and threw her arms around the surprised kunoichi's neck.

"Nicci-chan?" the blonde asked with a bewildered expression, sleepiness clearly written all over her face.

"What are you doing here? Is something the matter?"

"No, everything's okay." the brunette answered and shook her head, then let go of her friend.

"I just had a nightmare and was looking for the way to the rooftop to get some fresh air. I got lost and ended up here though."

The blonde beauty combed with her hand through her hair and tried to blink the sleepiness out of her eyes.

"The roof? Then you're totally wrong here. Can't you just use your sensor abilities to find the way or something?"

"I need much chakra and concentration to do so. And I have none at the moment."

"Oh." She mumbled and scratched her head. Discussing things like these in the middle of the night may was something for Shikamaru but not for her. That's why all she could do was offer her friend a soft smile.

"At least I can understand you getting lost. I was looking for the bathroom for whole 20 minutes just to find out it was like the second door to the left hallway from our room. And about your nightmare. If you like, you can stay with us for the night. Choji and Shikamaru surely won't mind." she proposed smiling. Nicci returned the smile but rejected the offer.

"Thanks, but I'll better be on my way back now."

They hugged each other before every girl went her own way.

In the end Nicci didn't make it to the roof but Ino was much better anyway. She remembered that even in these crazy times she still had friends she could count on and that such a ludicrous little nightmare wasn't enough to make her go crazy.

With a content smile she strolled down the hallway she came from but stopped dead in her tracks as she stared directly in a pair of bright green eyes.

"Sam...?"

* * *

Step for step, silent and light-footed like a hunting predator, the boy wandered through the countless corridors. He took his time and slowly but purposefully approached his prey, that was roaming aimlessly through the tower and would eventually, even though subconsciously, run right into his arms.

A bloodthirsty, almost psychopathic smirk formed on his lips as he knew now mere meters were separating him from his prey. Mere meters until he reached his goal.

His smirk vanished as he noticed that the prey stopped its movements, refusing to run right into his arms. A scowl formed on his face when to top it all it proceeded in a new direction. Has he been found out?

… No, that wasn't possible. He concealed his presence perfectly after all. Yet this prey had proven often enough its skills in predicting his steps.

And that was what irritated him to no end. His prey, that girl. She was weak, a pathetic little insect just good enough to be squashed under his feet. If he wanted to he could crush her anytime without much effort. He knew this since the first time he lay his eyes upon her.

But, he didn't know how, she could see through him as if he was made of glass. Their first encounter on the streets of Konoha reading in his eyes, the first test of the chunin exams seeing through his third eye. Her chakra level was insignificant, not even on the level of a genin. Then how could she accomplish those things, could even become a helper of those exams?

He didn't know. Ant that annoyed him! That's why he didn't kill her after arriving at the tower like he would have done normally. No, first he wanted to find out what it was that made her so special.

And that was when his prey did it again! She predicted his every move, knew instantly where he was forming his sand to attack and prepared herself to dodge. However she was far too slow and her stamina insufficient. He had seen academy students do better than that. And again he couldn't find an answer. And again that uncertainty annoyed him to no end.

That's why he decided to take this chance. This time he would get his answers. He would find out her secret. And then he would finally kill her, like his mother demanded.

Who cares if she was an official tester? Who cares if he got disqualified? Mother wanted blood. And after he got what he wanted, mother would get what she wanted.

Keeping those thoughts in mind he followed her. Leaving enough distance to not be discovered but close enough to strike anytime as soon as he got the opportunity. Like a skilled predator.

Eventually he found himself in the genin section. He cursed inwardly. There were too many people here, too many interference factors that could get in his way. Now he had to strike before it was too late.

Now he was mere steps behind her. He would be able to touch her if he reached out his hand. He could smell the sweet fragrance her body was emitting.

He licked his lips. His eyes darkened as they were fixated on the brunette in front of him and sand clouds ascended from his gourd, waiting for his command to lunge at the girl.

But just as he raised his arm to order his sand to attack he saw a light getting nearer and he had to retreat back into the shadows. The girl and the disturbance seemed to know each other, they hugged and called each other by first name.

This inconvenienced Gaara and he frowned while he watched the two girls. He only reluctantly wanted to abandon the hunt. But if his prey decided to go with the nuisance he had no choice but to proceed with his plan on another day. Or he just killed the blonde girl. A smirk appeared on his face. Yeah, that's just what he would do. After all this was the best chance he got to catch his prey ever since they arrived at the tower.

But luckily to the blond girl the brunette declined her offer. Now she could life on for another day. As for his prey...

Has he been found out again? Did she purposefully decline to safe the life of her little friend? Pah, friendship, how laughable! He could still kill her whenever he felt like it.

But it seemed that she didn't find out. Instead of nervousness and anxiety on her face, her lips formed a small content smile not giving away any clue that she knew of his presence.

So he vanished in the shadows of the hallway, planning on tailing the girl after she passed by him.

But he miscalculated his plan. Instead of just passing by him the girl turned to the hallway he was hidden in and almost bumped into him if she hadn't stopped just in time.

Now she was standing right in front of him, the tip of her now just one mere inch away from his, as they had the same height.

Her chocolate brown eyes stared right into his teal ones.

"Sam..?" she asked with wonder in her voice.

That caught him off guard. With a straight emotionless face he watched her as she blinked twice, realization slowly hitting her until finally she noticed her fault and a faint "Oh." escaped her mouth.

"Sam?" the boy repeated confusedly. She practically ran into him and all that crossed her mind was a name? Who was this Sam that she, instead of letting out a scream or shivering in fear, said this name? His eyes darkened. How could a simple person have such an impact on someone? Why did everything around him always come down to human relationships? He didn't like that one bit.

The girl noticed his darkening stare as well as the small distance between them. So she clumsily stumbled a few steps backwards with a blush on her face.

"I-Im' sorry. I did it again." she stuttered timidly, making the boy raise a nonexistant eyebrow.

"Again?" he asked. What did she mean with that?

The girl averted her eyes.

"I mistook you for somebody else. You two have the same eyes so I..." She shook her head than turned to face the opposite direction, small tears glittering in her eyes.

"I better go now."

That said she quickly went away, leaving the boy stand on the spot without any intention to follow her. Instead of answers he now got even more questions. Questions he had to think over first. Then next time he would get his answers. Next time for sure.

* * *

She ran and ran. Down the hallways, not caring where her feet would lead her. It didn't matter as long as she was away from him. She knew he was dangerous. Who knew what he would have done if she had stayed. But still... That expression in his eyes... What could it be? What was it that connected him to Sam? She really wanted to ask him. But she doubted she would ever be able to. He was there to kill her. She felt it. It was a miracle she got away just like that. Maybe she should talk to Asuma about it. Who knew if she'd get this lucky next time she met the redhead.

In the end she found herself in front of the helpers' sleeping quarters. Was she subconsciously following her instincts as a sensor? At least that would explain why she was so eagerly following Ino's chakra even though she didn't realize herself that she did so.

Shaking those thoughts aside she decided to try catch some more sleep before she had to be ready for tomorrow's duties.

* * *

Phew! Another chapter finished!

Luckily Gaara didn't kill Nicci, the story would have come to an end too fast if he did!

Exams are alomst over but if I'm unfortunate I still won't find enough time to write for this story since right after the sart of semester break I have to study for my interim exams... Does this school stuff never come to an end?


	13. A mission in a mission

Hey there! And again a chapter done, go me!

Thanks for all those lovely and totally awesome reviews! Cookies for everyone! *pulls on a cord and lets cookies rain from the sky*

Unfortunately I have to work for the next four weeks but I hope I'll still find time to update. Just for you, my wonderful readers!

So here we go, next chapter, enjoy!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 13: A mission in a mission

The rays of the dawning sun shone through the narrow windows that enlightened the sleeping quarters reserved for the chunin that were dispatched to the tower in the Forest of Death for the chunin exams. Right now there were four shinobi in total, three of them already awoken from the sun and were making themselves ready for another day of work.

The fourth however, the 13-year old Nicole Everett, still lay in bed snuggled up under the covers and unfazed by the noise made by the other occupants of the room.

"Hey, get up. You still have enough work to do today." One of the chunin barked at the girl, that didn't much but stir in her sleep and turned her back to him. The chunin, an ambitious man in his twenties, didn't really get along with her. Why she couldn't tell, just shrugged it off as not being on the same wavelength.

But the man didn't like to get ignored by the sleeping girl and unceremoniously threw a pillow at her that bounced off her head and fell to the floor.

"I told you to get up!" he repeated irritatedly.

"Just let her be." a kunoichi told him, shaking her head at the man's childish behavior.

Nicci on the other hand groaned at the disturbance of low-flying pillows. While keeping her head buried in her pillow she slid her hand out of the warm blanket and searched blindly the floor for the soft throwing projectile that, after grabbing it, she sent right back to the one who threw it.

A muffled thump could be heard followed by a "Hey!". A smile crept to her still buried face and she knew she hit him right on the back of his head.

Satisfied, she sat up and stretched thoroughly before taking her clothes and skipping into the bathroom, hearing the man shout profanities after her.

Just like the night before when she had met the redhead, she couldn't sleep this night either. So many thoughts circulated in her head that it was hard for her to calm down enough at night to find sleep.

In the morning of yesterday they had sent a hawk with a new mission for her. Seems that they got a hint that spies infiltrated the exams and she should keep an eye out for them while performing her duties as a helper. The message also mentioned the name of Orochimaru, one of those legendary ninjas called Sannin as Nicci recalled from Iruka's lessons.

So that meant some troublesome mess was going to happen. And she'd be right in the middle of it. Great.

Leaving the bathroom after a refreshing shower she made a quick stop at the tower-intern kitchen to eat some cereals before going to work. What work she had to do you ask? Well in every exam paperwork occurs. And who does all that paperwork?

Opening the door to a little office Nicci sighted while staring at the huge towers of paperwork that are piled on the desk and the floor.

It was a pain in the butt but it had to be done. She sat down behind the old wooden desk and began filing document for document.

Where did they get all that paperwork from anyway?

So while getting order in this chaos she used her sensor abilities to scan through the building like she did every five or so minutes since yesterday. Even though Ibiki taught her the essentials she was still unexperienced in espionage and the sort. And since this was her first real mission to actually put her gained wisdom on this field into action, she was quiet pressured. She had to be successful since she knew Ibiki had high expectations on her so failure was no option. She shuddered at the thought of what her mentor would do to her if she didn't live up to his expectations and messed this up.

She quickly shook that thought away and concentrated on the task at hand. The espionage, not the paperwork... Though this was perfect multitasking training for her.

So while filing the documents she scanned through the tower trying to remember what Ibiki taught her.

_Lesson 1: Absolutely everyone, even those close to you, is to be suspected. _

Right now there were three genin teams from Konoha, one from Oto and one from Suna inside the tower, as well as three chunin. That made 18 suspects in total. The genin teams were mostly sticking to themselves, with one exception. Team 10, her dear friends, and team 8 were meeting up in one of the common rooms. But she didn't add this on the suspicious-list since those two teams graduated together and so had enough reasons to stick together even though they were rivals in this exam.

Two of the chunin were in the kitchen, one was in the staffroom. Nicci felt her eye twitch. The man, that barked at her this morning to get out of bed, was now lazing on the sofa in the staffroom not being productive at all. She could feel his chakra being all week and unmoving, a strong indicator that he was just killing time.

And here she was, having to do all the paperwork while the other chunin just lazed around and drank some coffee. Damn them, caffeine addicts!

_Lesson 2: Even animals can be used for espionage and communication._

This was a tad more difficult than inspecting humans. Firstly, small animals like mice and birds had a weaker chakra signature than humans or bigger animals. So detecting all of them required higher concentration and would exhaust the girl faster than she preferred.

Secondly, animals tended to have one hell of a patience! They could just sit there days simply doing nothing until the right moment arose to complete their assigned task. So they'd require a lot of time to observe them. That added to the first problem, Nicci just knew that her chakra would probably be all used up at the end of the day.

But the good thing was, mice as well as birds weren't the smartest creatures out there. So even if they were perfectly trained the most they could do was conveying massages. For espionage they'd have to be put under a genjutsu and luckily Nicci could detect those without any troubles as they altered the chakra of the victim in an unique way.

And since she couldn't feel any genjutsu on those little chakra flames that she perceived as the small animals in and around the tower, as well as couldn't detect any untypical movements, she's drop them for now and check on them again later.

_Lesson 3: Even the most loyal person can unknowingly become a spy when put under a genjutsu_

Luckily, same with the mice and birds, this was pretty easy for her to check, regarding that genjutsu was completely obvious to her advanced senses and almost impossible to miss. So after a little check-up she could call them all genjutsu-free. She also couldn't sense any higher concentration of chakra that would be a strong indicator that someone used or prepared a jutsu. The only anomaly she found was the foreign chakra inside that redheaded boy from Suna. She already sensed it the first time they met and since Ibiki and some others seemed to know its meaning she decided to note it down together with her other encounter with the boy. She thought that Ibiki should know about his unstable personality since he could become a threat, and not only to her.

Sighing the girl stood up and stretched. She didn't find anything too suspicious so she decided to take a little break. Though she'd still keep an eye on the movement on the teams, as well as that one boy from Konoha's Team 8. He was housing countless insect inside his body – which sent Nicci a shiver down her spine – that could be controlled by him so she had to be extra careful with him.

* * *

It was evening of the fourth day since the start of the second test. At noon another genin-team from Konoha had arrived. Is was three males, one had silver hair and big round glasses, the other two hid their faces with veils, glasses and bandanas.

Upon inspecting their chakra Nicci couldn't find anything suspicious about them and let them be for now.

She also came to the conclusion that this Shino wasn't a threat since his insects always stayed within a certain radius around him. This was lucky for the girl since keeping an eye on such tiny chakra signatures all the time was a pain in the butt and after the third day her head hurt like hell from the constant concentration her observations required.

So again she sat in the little office and was surrounded by heaps of paper work which has already decreased considerably but there was still enough left to occupy her till the fifth and last day of the second test.

She nibbled on a sandwich and flipped through the document in front of her when something suddenly triggered her attention.

Normally the members of a genin team would always stick together and try to avoid other teams. But this newly arrived Konoha team... They met up with the Oto-nins in a common room that was remote from the more lively parts of the tower. This couldn't be just a simple coincidence, their movements were too target-oriented.

They remained there for about 7 minutes, then two of the Konoha-nins left, one stayed behind with the Oto-nins though. A few minutes later he followed after his teammates and the Oto-team, too, left for their own room.

A frown appeared on the girl's face. That was suspicious. _Very _suspicious.

She would definitely report this to Ibiki!

* * *

It was the fifth and last day of the second test.

Nicci actually managed to finish all the paperwork in the morning and now rewarded herself with spending the remaining time together wit her friends.

So now she was sitting in one of the many common rooms together with two teams of the infamous Rookie 9. That was the expression often used by Asuma when he referred to last year's academy graduates, which also included Ino, Shikamaru and Choji.

It was the same common room where Nicci had spent some time with her friends before when they reached the tower. Now She and Team 10 were occupying one of the two couches while Team 8 sat on the other one. If she remembered correctly their names were Kiba, Shino and Hinata.

"Hey, aren't you the girl that was one of the helpers in the first test?" Kiba asked Nicci suddenly, eyeing her curiously.

"Yep." she answered shortly with a content grin on her face since she was finally able to snuggle up against her favourite Shikamaru-pillow again. Said pillow didn't mind any more since he was already used to the skinship the girl forced onto him.

"Is that why you're here now? As a helper?"

"Obviously."

"How did that come about?"

"The Hokage moves in mysterious ways." she answered with a cryptic voice and waved with her hand in a circle motion in the air causing most of the teens present to crack a smile or chuckle.

Then Team 8 started to talk about their experiences in the Forest of Death. When their story came to the point where they met the Sand siblings, Nicci felt a shudder running down her spine. She really was lucky that she didn't end up like those Ame-nins in Kiba's narration.

She felt an arm snaking around her shoulder. Though Shikamaru looked as stoic as ever, it seemed that he felt her shudder and that was his way of trying to comfort her. She beamed on the inside. It was a wonderful feeling to have such a great friend as him. Then she snuggled up a bit more to him while she continued to listen to Kiba's lively reproduction of their time in the forest.

"I-I hope Naruto w-will make it in time." Hinata stuttered shyly, after her teammate was done narrating, while staring at her hands.

"We met them in the forest some days ago. It didn't look too good for them though." Ino explained with worry in her voice. Understandable since the girl on that team was a close friend of hers.

"You don't have to worry." Nicci assured them with a smile. "They reached the tower just this minute."

"What makes you think that?" Kiba asked her sceptically.

In just that moment a shout of joy echoed through the old building that could only belong to one certain hyper shinobi.

"See? What did I tell you?" she replied grinning and contently leaned back into her pillow while watching the relief washing over the teens' faces.

Looked like all of the Rookie 9 made it to the next round.

Then the genin all descended down the tower to the entrance hall to congratulate Team 7. Nicci used that chance to depart from the group. In two hours the test would end and they should use the time to rest. She on the other hand would work on her report to Ibiki-sensei, not wanting to evoke his wrath upon her.

Rule 1: Never make Ibiki angry!

* * *

Yeah, I know, it doesn't happen all too much in that chapter, but it's somewhat important for future ones and also for character development so please bear with me!

I really love to insert some NicciShika fluff here and there! Poor Shika-kun get's harassed by a troublesome woman!

So if you like it or may have some critique for me, just leave me a PM or review! Review make my world go round! x3


	14. Preliminaries and a gamble

Hey there again!

And huge thanks and cookies to all you wonderful people who reviewed, f&f-ed and stopped by to read this story!

Not much to say this time except that I'm dead tired because of work! Yes, not being used to work does that to you!

Now, just for you, the next chapter! Enjoy!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 14: Preliminaries and a gamble

Sympathy. Nothing could describe it better what Nicole felt at the moment.

Sympathy for her friends, that after their struggling in the forest of death still didn't reach the third round of the exam but instead had to take part in some preliminaries because there were too many teams that passed.

Sympathy for Team 7 that had just 2 hours to rest while all the other teams were fully rested.

And lastly sympathy for herself because again she was standing between jonin and chunin behind the Hokage and listened to his speech. This time she felt even tinier than usual because of the tall brawny man, Ibiki Morino, standing right next to her whose huge presence made her seem even smaller than she already was.

After the Hokage finished his speech the first pair of fighters was announced by a huge television in the wall. This strange mix of advanced technology as well as the lack of it in this world never ceased to amaze her. Who knows, if she had been a mechanic and knew how to build cars, maybe she'd be a multi millionaire by now! On the other hand with her practically nonexistent skills in maths and handicrafts she would have never been able to take this path in her life.

Everyone left the ground of the underground arena the shinobi were currently gathered in and went to the platform on the side to watch the first fight between Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi.

Well, that was what most of them did.

While all the genin and their jonin instructors watched the match that just started, Nicci followed her mentor Ibiki out of the arena into a long hall.

The preliminaries took place inside the tower, or to be more accurate under it. Directly under the tall building was the arena they were in just moments ago. From there countless maze-like corridors spread out like a spiderweb. Nicci wondered if one of these hallways even lead back to the village. That would at least explain how the Hokage arrived at the tower since she doubted that he'd take the long hard route through the forest.

Ibiki led her into a small room, only furnished with a desk and one chair each in front and behind it. Nicci curiously eyed the strange seals that were spread across the wall, ceiling and door and wondered what they were good for. But when she closed the door behind her a sudden jolt went through her body and she went numb. Finding her senses again she felt her sensory abilities now limited to the inside of this room. So the seals were to shut off this room from any from of espionage, It seemed...

The girl didn't realize it before but her ability to sense chakra was just as natural for her as seeing or hearing. And now that it's limited like this she felt kinda... blind.

"Stop zoning out." the gruff man scolded the brunette and made her look at him like a confused deer. She quickly took in the seat in front of the desk where Ibiki already took a seat opposite to her.

He put the folder with the report she wrote in front of him on the desk, rested his chin on his folded hand and looked at her expectantly.

The girl gulped and took a deep breath, trying to remember the formalities needed for making report.

Then she started to retell everything she wrote in the report that the man had probably already read. He once taught her that it was necessary to give an oral report as an addition to the written one, as one may remember things later differently, to clear possibly occurring questions or to get better insight into the mission through hearing it in person since reports are usually written very neutral and distanced to the mission itself.

When she finished she looked at her mentor expectantly, who in return gave her a curt nod – the greatest sign of approval she could probably expect from him.

Inwardly sighing in relief, she was happy that she at least didn't mess up her report. She didn't want to know how Ibiki would react if she had done a bad job.

Though the dark expression on the interrogator's face made her doubt her apparent success.

"So you say that this Gaara could be dangerous to the village." he repeated what the girl had just told him. She nodded.

"Do you have any more evidence to that apart from his so-called attack on you and that you 'felt a foreign chakra source inside him'?"

"No." she admitted meekly lowering her gaze to stare at her feet.

"You can probably guess that we can't act upon mere assumptions a girl made, whose abilities aren't even fully approved yet." he stated coldly.

"Yes." she answered her voice now being a mere whisper.

"Though we can't ignore that a genin dared to threaten one of our proctors." he continued and made the girl look up to him.

"I see what I can do." he said and gave the girl a meaningful look. "I have great expectations on you, Everett. Don't disappoint me."

The girl's eyes widened in shock. Could it be... Did her mentor just tell her that he trusts her opinion?

But then realization hit her. No. This wasn't an expression of trust. What she did was actually making a huge gamble with the man. Should her fears about the redhead prove to be justified it would greatly affect her future career as a shinobi and help her to gain trust and recognition. But if they prove to be wrong... She shuddered inwardly at the thought.

When Ibiki dismissed her she bowed to the intimidating man and opened the door to leave, again hit by an invisible force as all the sensations came back crushing onto her the moment the heavy door opened a crack to allow the seal to be broken.

"We have to train your tolerance on chakra fluctuations." she heard the man mumble before he went back to reading the report in front of him and she closed the door again behind her now standing alone in the hallway.

Finding back to the arena was easy for her. Because of the fights going on large quantities of chakra were released and made it easy for her to track down the correct path. Also using the chakra sonar helped to not end up in dead ends. And there were many of them as she now 'saw'. Those ninjas really loved to build maze-like structures it seemed. One day all of them will die out because they'll rebuild the Cretan Labyrinth and get eaten by the Minotaur!

As she approached the arena the high amount of concentrated chakra in the air made it harder for her to breathe with every step she took.

'_What the hell are they doing?'_ she grumbled while supporting herself on the wall and gasping for air. Someone was using way too much chakra in this fight to be healthy for him.

She finally left the hallway and stepped on the balcony of the arena where the pressure in the air was so high that she felt dizzy and light-headed. Just as she was about to fall over she felt strong arms catching her.

"Are you okay, Nicci-chan?"

She knew that voice. Taking another deep breath she looked up and right into the worried face of Asuma.

"Yeah. But the high chakra concentration in here makes it hard to breathe." she admitted and was able to stand on her feet again with the man's help.

"What's happening?"

"Rock Lee fights against the red-haired boy from Suna." Asuma explained and Nicci tensed upon hearing the description of that certain boy. "Lee used a technique to remove the natural restraints for chakra inside his body."

"The eight Celestial Gates." Nicci concluded while watching the fight from the edge of the platform, remembering her lessons with Iruka. "So that's the reason for the high amount of chakra in the air?"

The bearded an chuckled at that.

"That boy is truly a genius of Tajutsu."

"More like an idiot. Such a drag." Shikamaru retorted while strolling over to the pair, followed by Ino and Choji.

The girl smiled at her friends but then turned serious again, a frown on her face.

"To release such a high amount of chakra at once, doesn't he know that's suicidal?"

"He does. But he wants to win at all costs." Asuma answered.

"But he _can't_ win." she explained with a whine. "Gaara doesn't even fight with his full strength, while Lee's already at his limit."

"That's not his full strength?" Shikamaru questioned, he and the others giving the girl surprised looks. She just nodded in return.

"I can _see_ it. He's still holding back."

"Sometimes your sensory skills give me the creeps." Choji mumbled with wide eyes.

In that moment in the fight Lee decided to open more gates, releasing even more chakra, resulting in Nicci to almost fall over if not for Shikamaru who caught her and helped her on her feet again.

"Stupid chakra making me feel dizzy." the girl grumbled and held her aching head.

"Troublesome." the lazy Nara agreed and held onto her arm to prevent her from collapsing again.

They watched the rest of the fight in silence when Lee hit Gaara with his Extreme Lotus but sand cushioned his fall and Gaara crushed one of Lee's arms and legs before finally Gui stepped in to safe his student.

After this match was over and they carried away the now unconscious Lee it was time for Choji's match against Dosu.

"If I do well, Asuma-sensei will treat me to BBQ!" he said, his eyes burning with determination, before he went down the stairs into the arena.

Nicci giggled at his antics.

"Go, Choji!" she yelled after him.

"You can do it!" Shikamaru joined in.

"Fatass!" Ino added enthusiastically which in return got her a death glare from the chubby boy.

"Was that really necessary?" Nicci whispered to her unsure if insulting him could help to motivate the boy.

"Of course. If you call him fat, he gets even stronger." the blond kunoichi explained with a wink.

Nicci gave her a doubting look before her eyes widened in shock.

"Ino! Your hair!" she almost yelled and stared open-mouthed at her friend's golden locks, or rather the lack of it.

"Oh that." she mumbled and fiddled with the stub of hair that remained from her ponytail.

"She lost her match." Shikamaru explained with a lazy grin and earned himself a glare from the girl.

"It was a draw, okay?"

"But you still didn't make it to the finals."

Nicci watched the two teens, confused what cut off hair had to do with a lost (or drawn) match.

"So..." she finally stated still unable to make sense out of the hair "What about you, Shikamaru?"

"He won." Ino grumbled still angry at the male.

"Troublesome." the boy replied, acting as if winning was something bad. To him it probably was since making it to the next round meant more fighting and fighting meant work.

"Really? Congrats!" the brunette cheered for him masterly ignoring his reluctance and immediately hugged the boy who grumbled a "troublesome" in reply but returned the hug with on arm anyways.

Then the teens returned to watch their friend's fight who in the end was mercilessly pounded into the ground.

"Poor Choji." Nicci mumbled feeling sympathy for the boy.

"And he tried so hard, too." Ino agreed.

"At least he gets treated to barbecue by Asuma-sensei now." Shikamaru suggested and they all turned around to look at the man who had sweat gathered at his forehead while he eyed his wallet worriedly.

"And sensei." Ino added with an evil smirk "I think we all deserve to be treated by you after all the efforts we made!"

Asuma's face immediately paled even more while the kids smirked at him with a devilish glint in their eyes.

* * *

This actually became longer than expected... And less boring than I feared! Phew!

It often gets mentioned that shinobi have to make some sort of oral report after every mission and I just tried to make sense out of the necessity of both an oral and written report... and failed. Miserably. *crawls under the desk* Hopefully I can improve that part soon...

Now please excuse me while I catch up some much needed sleep! Good night folks, may the randomness be with you and graze you with fluffy dreams!


	15. Sad eyes

Hey there!

Sorry for the late update! But to make it up to you, you get an extra long chapter this time so don't be mad at me, mkay? ;)

Thanks for all those lovely review, they made me so happy! x3

**Note: **Apart from certain key scenes the plot of this story is still pretty open. So if you have any requests, ideas and/or wishes for the storyline, future chapters, pairings and what not feel free to tell me!

The fluff in this chapter was brought to you by the request of FluffyDragonsLiveInMyHouse! Hope this much satiates your hunger for fluff, my dear! ;)

Now, enjoy!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 15: Sad eyes

"What a drag. My old man really wanted me to have this jutsu down by the start of the third test." the lazy Nara offspring complained.

"Amazing, to be able to learn a jutsu in just four weeks." Nicci mused, astonished by her friend's intelligence. The secret jutsus of the Nara clan weren't the easiest to learn, so a mere four weeks was really impressing.

"I can't even use it in my battles though." Shikamaru sighed.

"Why that?" she asked and licked on her chocolate ice cream.

"I can only use it after I caught my opponent in the Kagemane no Jutsu which is already troublesome enough." he explained before taking a bite out of the cone of the vanilla ice cream in his hand.

After four long weeks of preparation for the third test of the annual chunin examinations, the two teens finally were able to find some time to spend with each other again even if it was just on the day before the tournament was held.

During those weeks all members of Team 10 plus Nicole were too busy with training to find time for their friends. Shikamaru, Ino and Choji got special training by their fathers, while Nicci spent nearly every minute of the day inside Konoha's Intelligence Division. Shikamaru was forced to extensive training because of his upcoming battle, while Ino and Choji had to go through the same to prevent another loss in the next year's exams. The impact of the lessons are greater when the wounds are still fresh, as Asuma would say.

The day before was the first time in these four weeks since the preliminaries had ended where the group of four was able to get together because on this day Asuma had to fulfill his promise and treat them to barbecue. Though Choji ate too much and hurt his stomach so he had to stay in hospital for surveillance. Ino had to help out in her family's flower shop so it was just Shikamaru and Nicci for now. That's why those two were now sitting on a bench in front of an ice cream stand and talked about what they were doing in those busy weeks.

"Ohh." the girl said realizing what the boy implicated. He'd already win his match if he were able to trap his opponent in the Kagemane no Jutsu so getting taught a technique that can only be efficiently used after said jutsu was rather meaningless for his upcoming fight. On the other hand Nicci thought that it was hard enough for his father to induce the lazy Nara to train so of course he had to use this chance.

The girl chuckled and ate the remains of the crunchy ice cream cone before misusing her friend as a pillow again and snuggled up to him.

"At least you were able to increase your chakra reserves this way" she suggested cheerfully, having already noticed the raised amount of chakra inside the boy's body.

"Though it's still not enough to hold that troublesome jutsu for more than a few seconds." he grumbled in what seemed like a disappointed voice.

Nicci looked up at him in surprise – was he actually starting to overcome his laziness and take his training seriously? – and noticed a little speck of melted vanilla ice cream on his cheek.

Automatically she reached out with her hand to wipe the stain off his face and licked the sweet substance off her fingertip. Shikamaru who had initially frozen up from the sudden touch was now blushing in a light pink and averted his eyes to the side.

"Anyway." he quickly said, resisting the urge to clear his throat to hide the embarrassment. "How's training going on your side? Are they still trying to teach you taijutsu?"

"Luckily not." she answered with a grin that left as quickly as it appeared and was replaced by a frown. "Strangely enough Ibiki stopped all my usual training for the last few weeks. Instead he kept asking questions about my mission and took me along to meetings and even interrogations."

"Interrogations?" the boy repeated, curiosity in his voice. The girl nodded.

"Yeah. It started like two weeks ago. I never ever want to sit on the other side of that accursed table..." she mumbled the last part, shuddering at the thought of the poor guy Ibiki tried to get information out of. Okay it turned out that he was a spy from some small country but it was still terrifying enough to have left a deep impact on the girl.

But Shikamaru seemed more troubled by something else.

"So he stopped your training to drag you with him on his daily duties?" he summarized with that certain expression on his face that he always had whenever there was more to something than it seemed. And that made Nicci think.

Then it hit her. She shot up from her position of leaning against the boy to fully turn around and face him with wide eyes.

"You don't think he wants me to become a member of the Intelligence Division, do you?"

"...Sometimes I wonder if you're even aware of what you're doing." he mumbled with his typical expression of boredom.

Just then the girl realized that in her little moment of epiphany she practically jumped the boy, her hands rested on his thighs while her face was mere centimeters away from his.

"Oh... Oops?" she replied grinning sheepishly as she got off the annoyed boy to let him some private space.

"Troublesome." he mumbled as he made himself comfortable again. But then a sweatdrop formed on his forehead as he looked back at the girl again, that now sat besides him with both hands propped on the bench facing him with expecting eyes like a little puppy that awaited an order from its master.

"So what do you think?" she asked again fully trusting the boy's valuation.

"It really seems like he wants to instruct you to the work of a member of the Intelligence Division."

"And is that a good thing?" Nicci asked doubtfully. Of course at first glance one would think that's a great improvement but Konoha's Intelligence Division wasn't infamous for nothing.

"That depends." Shikamaru explained to her. "Even though Ibiki-san is the head of the division his specialization lies on interrogation and torture. It's a drag but if he keeps you at his side like this you will most likely end up to take up the same profession as him."

"You mean... torturing people? Like, inflicting heavy physical damage and stuff?" the girl inquired her face paling by the thought.

The boy nodded as reply.

"But there may be an alternative. Was Yamanaka Inoichi also present at those meetings?"

"You mean Ino's father? I saw him in most of them."

"Then try to stick to him. He's specialized in interrogation and information gathering. It's still troublesome but that would at least spare you the torturing."

"Okay. Thanks Shika!" she said with a small and gave the boy a hug who just shook his head lightly at the girl's antics.

"You know what we should do?" she then suddenly stated.

"We should get a fruit basket for Choji and visit him in the hospital!"

Yes, she felt really proud of herself for knowing the local custom of getting fruit for the sick.

"He's not allowed to eat anything today." Shikamaru retorted boredly "That's why Ino indents to just do that after she finished helping out at home."

"Hehe, that sounds just like her!" Nicci laughed.

"It's a drag but we can still visit him. Though there's a troublesome amount of people getting hospitalized lately." he mumbled with a frown, earning a confused look from the brunette.

"Really? Who do you mean?"

"Three days ago Naruto was found in front of the hospital, unconscious from chakra exhaustion. And some days before that Hayate Gekko, the proctor from the preliminaries, was attacked. Luckily some patrolling Anbu were able to intervene otherwise he would be dead by now. His attacker got away before they could identify them though and Hayate-san hasn't woken up yet."

"Sounds serious. How come you know this?" Nicci asked curiously though a bit shaken from the news about Hayate.

The boy scratched his head boredly.

"I overheard my father talking to an Anbu. It also seems that those additional patrols were ordered by Ibiki-san."

"Is that so?" she mused with a straight face albeit smirking inwardly. Seems like her gamble with Ibiki – thought it was never mentioned again since they made it – was starting to bear fruit. Not that she favored what happened to the jonin but it's not like he wouldn't have been attacked if she didn't make that bet with her mentor.

"Then let's go to the hospital." she proclaimed and got up, Shikamaru following her example. "But let's still buy a fruit basket for Lee. Wonder how's he doing by now."

And yes, she really wanted to show off her newest knowledge of this local custom.

* * *

The singing of birds. It was nice and calming. The boy felt warm and comfortable. What happened again? Oh yeah, he was being trained by the Ero-sennin and finally succeeded to summon a real toad. He must've fallen unconscious from chakra exhaustion. Well, for now all he wanted was to go back to sleep and enjoy this moment of peace a little longer. But light was disturbing this pleasant darkness.

Blinking a few times Naruto managed to open one eye after getting accustomed to the brightness that were white tiles on the ceiling.

"Hey. Finally awake." greeted a voice to the boy's left.

"See? I told you he'd wake up any moment." another voice, female this time, stated.

Naruto turned his head to look into the face of Shikamaru and...

"... Who were you again?" he asked the girl confusedly. He was sure to have seen her somewhere before.

"Nicci. Iruka always treated me and you to Ramen, did you forget?" she explained slightly annoyed that he had actually forgotten about her.

"Oh!" the blonde suddenly exclaimed with realization in his eyes. "You're that girl that can't even use chopsticks!"

"I can use chopsticks! ...Now." she defended herself, mumbling the last word though.

The boy just gave her a bright smile then looked around with confusion on his face.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"In the hospital. You were asleep for three days." Shikamaru explained lazily.

"We came to see Choji and decided to visit you as well." Nicci added.

"Where his injuries that serious?" the blonde asked worriedly.

"Naah, he just ate so much that he injured his stomach is all." the lazy Nara answered.

"Hahaha, that's just like him!"

"Oh yeah, here." Nicci stated then handed the blonde a fruit basket.

"I wanted to give it to Lee but he's still unconscious and Choji can't eat anything so..."

"Yay, I get food! And girl visit! Can it get any better?" he cheered happily before he put on a fox-like grin and giggled like a girl. "We should eat it in front of Choji!"

"Sorry, Ino already made a claim on that." she retorted with a grin.

Then suddenly a cold shudder ran down her spine and made her freeze up. Shikamaru noticed this abrupt change of her behaviour and turned to face her with a nervous look, already suspecting what could have happened.

"Did you sense something troublesome?" he asked her and received a stiff nod.

"It's that boy from Suna. He's in this hospital. It's still faint but I can feel killing intent emitting from him."

"Which way?" the blonde demanded, the previous amusement now completely replaced with anxiety. So he knew what the redhead was capable of it seemed.

The girl quickly led the two boys down the hall and stopped right in front of Lee's hospital room.

"It doesn't look too good." the girl mumbled nervously as she peeked through the crack of the half open door and spotted a certain redhead hunched over Rock Lee's unconscious form.

The two boys nodded to each other before silently moving into the room. Nicci observed them from behind the door frame, not wanting to be spotted by the Suna boy.

She watched the deadly sand slowly encasing the sleeping boy and just before his attacker could command it to kill Shikamaru caught him in his Kagemane no Jutsu and Naruto punched him in the face. Sand armour crumbled off his cheek as the red-haired boy glanced indifferently at the two nuisances that prevented him from finishing off his prey.

"What are you up to?" Naruto questioned him angrily.

"I was trying to kill him." Gaara answered calmly. This cold calmness together with what he had just revealed shocked and unsettled the teens. How can anyone react so indifferently when they were just about to kill someone?

"Is there a need to do that? You already won the fight. Do you have some personal grudge against him?" Shikamaru asked with a firm voice but the nervous look on his face betrayed him.

"I do not." again an absolute calm answer that appalled the boys. "I'm going to kill him just because I want to kill him." he stated.

"But why would anyone want to kill just for the sake of killing?" Nicci asked from her spot behind the door frame thus announcing her presence to the red-headed boy. An utterly foolish thing to do that she'd certainly regret later as she now realized.

The boy's eyes darkened as he noticed the girl clinging to the wooden door frame trying to hide away from him like a frightened animal.

"You again?" he growled, teal eyes glaring at her making her flinch. His glare intensified as he wanted to make a step but was stopped from the restrictions of the Kagemane no Jutsu though the black-haired boy visibly struggled from his sudden movement. So it was just a matter of time for him to break free from these restraints.

"You must have had a messed up childhood. How self-centered can you be?" Shikamaru stated drawing the Suna-nin's attention away from the girl.

"If you get in my way, I'll kill you, too." he retorted icily.

"Go ahead and try!" Naruto yelled furiously. But Shikamaru stopped him from acting rashly and instead used a bluff to try and convince the boy to retreat.

Gaara though, unfazed by his attempt at intimidation, just repeated to kill them as well if they got in his way.

"I won't be killed by the like of you!" Naruto shouted.

"I told you to stop it! His strength is like a monster, don't you understand that?!" Shikamaru yelled back at the blonde finally losing his cool.

"I have a real monster inside me. I won't lose to the likes of him." he replied with a confident smirk.

'A monster?' Nicci wondered and observed the foreign red chakra swirling inside the boy's belly. Then she thought of the time when she asked Asuma about it who refused to give her a proper answer. 'So that explains it...'

Then Gaara declared that he also had a monster inside him which explained the dreadful chakra the girl felt during his fight against Lee.

Then he told them of his father that constantly tried to assassinate him for six years now and that he didn't see any reason to live so in the end he justified the meaning of his existence to be killing every living human beside himself.

As she listened to the boy's sad story the girl felt something break inside her. All that hurt, all that loneliness he had experienced throughout his life. The feeling of being scorned and hated by the whole world. She couldn't comprehend any of it. She couldn't comprehend it at all. In all her life she was surrounded by a loving family, great friends and people that cared for her. His suffering and loneliness were completely foreign to her.

In the end she couldn't help but feel guilty of her comfortable and happy life while there were people like him that were denied of any love or a reason for their existence.

"As long as there are people in this world for me to kill" the boy concluded, a maniacal grin forming on his face "My existence will not vanish."

With the Kagemane finally broken, sand shot out from the gourd on the boy's back and rose in the air like a deadly wave that was about to crush anything underneath it.

"Now, let me feel it."

"That's enough!"

Surprised everyone turned around to look at the source of the new voice. They all stared at the green spandex wearing jonin that stood beside the shocked girl.

"The finals are tomorrow. Don't get so antsy." he stated with a calm voice though it had a threatening undertone to it.

Nicci stared at the man in shock. Had she been so taken in by the homicidal boy that she didn't even notice Gui's presence right next to her?

Gaara held his head in pain, then headed towards exit without a word. Arriving at the door though he turned around to glare one more time at the other occupants of the room.

"I'll definitely kill you guys. Just wait." he threatened, still holding his aching head. Then He shot one more glance at the brunette who instantly froze from his glare. "Especially you." he added before finally disappearing in the halls of the hospital.

For one long moment complete silence filled the room. Then Nicci exhaled the air she had held in her lungs and fell to her knees, her shaking leg no longer able to support her weight.

The two boys, too, freed themselves of their shock.

"What did he mean with that?!" Naruto exclaimed being upset about the whole situation.

Shikamaru walked over to the shaking girl, knelt down and lay his hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?" he asked, worry mixed in his irritated expression. He got a stiff nod in return.

"Why does that guy want to kill you so badly?" the blonde asked her.

"I don't know." she answered honestly. "But this isn't the first time he threatened to kill me."

"In any case you should be more careful from now on, Nicci-chan. At least until the exams are over." Gui told her and offered her a warm smile before turning to face all three of them. "You guys should go home and relax some more. Tomorrow is an important day after all."

That said he shunshin-ed away to – what Nicci hoped – report this incident to the higher-ups.

"I'll walk you home." Shikamaru told the girl. She nodded with a small smile and accepted the hand he offered her to help her stand up.

* * *

On the way to Asuma's apartment neither of the two spoke a word. Nicci merely stared at the ground lost in her own thoughts and Shikamaru as well didn't feel the need to say anything. He just lazily walked next to her, one step behind the girl to always have an eye on her. It was troublesome to watch that normally blunt and kinda clingy girl walking around with a hanging hand and not even trying to snatch his arm or poke him in the side like she normally did. But since he wasn't knowledgeable with the opposite sex as he always thought of women as troublesome and annoying, he couldn't come up with anything to lighten up her mood. Instead he just stayed by her side and hoped that this would at least give her a little comfort. Sometimes he wondered how such an – in most aspects at least – average and normal girl like her could attract so much trouble.

"I don't understand how this mess could happen to me of all people." Nicci finally sighed openly stating the thoughts that had troubled her until now.

"Well, you started crying the first time you met him." the lazy boy offered.

"Yeah, but is that really a reason to kill me?"

"You heard what he said earlier. That would be more than enough reason for him if he even needed one." he sighed annoyed. Not at her but at the prospect of that troublesome boy being a danger to his friend.

"Mhh..." she mumbled and again looked to the ground with a pondering expression.

He sighed and ruffled through her hair, his annoyed gaze directed at the path in front of them.

"Don't worry so much. You're living together with Asuma-sensei and Gui-sensei probably already reported that incident so it'll be really troublesome for that guy to approach you." he answered matter-of-factly. And he wouldn't let anything happen to her either. What man would he be if he couldn't even protect one single woman?

The brunette, feeling reassured by the soothing words of her friend, nodded and managed a small smile to appear on her lips.

"You're right. I shouldn't think so much into it. And it's not like I'm surprised that I'm the one again to attract all the trouble." she joked her smile spreading to a small grin. The raven head returned that with a small crooked smile on his own.

That was when the two teens finally arrived in front of the door to Asuma's apartment.

"Tomorrow I'll go with Asuma-san to watch your fight and cheer for you. So dare you if you don't try hard and kick those guys' asses." she announced with a wink.

"I have to anyway. Otherwise you'll pester me about it forever." he retorted with an annoyed face but amusement glinting in his eyes.

Then they said goodbye and Shikamaru waited until he heard the familiar click of a locked door after the girl vanished inside the flat until he went on his way back home to his troublesome mother. She'd surely yell at him again for being late as soon as he set foot into the house.

Nicole on the other hand was leaning against the front door and felt for the chakra of her friend as it departed. After a few more seconds she sighed, slipped off the shinobi sandals she was wearing and slumped down on the couch in the living room. Her face buried in the fabric she let out a groan. She was tired and stressed and now Asuma wasn't even at home to give her a sense of security. Glancing at the watch on the wall another groan escaped her. It would still take at least two hours until the man would get home.

It was months ago when she arrived in this messed up ninja world and she finally managed to settle in this strange village. She didn't even have to be afraid any more of being tortured or killed off. Hellish training yes, but no fear of getting interrogated and tortured.

And now that it was back, that all too familiar fear she had felt at the beginning, she felt weak and vulnerable. Death wasn't something she wanted to experience again any time soon so she didn't exactly plan to be killed off just because some homicidal redhead thought murdering her would be fun.

Maybe it was from the exhaustion of today but it didn't take long for the girl to doze off into a light and dreamless sleep. This lasted for about half an hour when she got suddenly ripped from the sweet darkness. What awoke her though wasn't noise or a touch. It was a menacing chakra that flooded her senses before letting her jump up on the sofa she was peacefully lying on just seconds ago.

She cursed under her breath. She had had more than enough of this particular chakra today.

Unnerved and tired she observed the small grains of chakra soaked sand that floated through the room practically invisible to normal eyes and gathered in the upper corner of the room to conflate into a floating eye. Nicci felt her head hurt as she stared straight at the obnoxious eye that was first scanning the room before finally settling down on her. She was returning the gaze with a perfectly straight face but inwardly she was reciting any curse she could come up with and threw them on the accursed deity that was most likely laughing at her right now.

Even if the orb of the eye was brown she knew this jutsu belonged to Gaara, had she not only witnessed this jutsu before but also recognised the chakra signature. And now the boy that had told her that he'd kill her not even an hour now knew that she was all alone at home and no one would intervene would he acquit himself to his promise.

She swallowed hard and weighed the odds. It'd be best for her to try to run away and get to a crowded street as fast as possible. There were still enough people roaming the streets that not even someone like him would dare to attack her while being surrounded by so many witnesses.

So her gaze shifted between the eye and the front door, estimating the distance and how long it'd take her to run away as well as the time it'd take for the boy to stop her before doing so. He was nearby, just on the roof of the neighbouring building, but maybe if she used some chakra to enhance her speed...

But all her hope vanished when after she made just the tiniest move, the sand eye dissolved and instantly shot towards her the moment she jumped from the sofa. It was just a small amount of sand but it was enough to hit her painfully at her shoulder with the same force of one of Asuma's heavy punches in his taijutsu training sessions and let her smash against the wall behind her. The impact pressed the air out of her lungs and she heard the sickening crack of a fractured rip. Her vision was red and black from the pain that shot through her body and she would have slumped to the ground if it wasn't for the sand that firmly pinned her against the wall. She felt a chakra concentration appear in front of her and with some effort cracked her eye open to stare directly into the cold teal orbs of the Suna boy in front of her.

His expression was emotionless and cold but the bloodthirsty aura he emitted gave the girl goosebumps.

She wanted to back away but the sand around her shoulder stopped her and instead constricted further making her wince in pain.

She felt defenceless, like a wounded deer that got chased into a dead end.

Already feeling the cold touch of Death and hearing the laughs of the Gods she closed her eyes to wait for the killing blow, praying that he'd at least make it quick so she didn't have to suffer.

"Fight back." the boy's monotonous voice ordered.

Slowly the girl opened her eyes again to look at the boy who still stood in front of her motionlessly and indifferently.

She would have mistaken him for a lifeless doll if it wasn't for the murderous aura surrounding him.

"You can act weak all you want, I know that you hide something. Now, show me."

Nicci blinked in surprise. Was that the reason he didn't kill her from the start?

Cautiously she glanced at the watch on the wall just behind the boy. It would still take some time until Asuma arrived but if she was lucky, then Gui would have already reported to the Hokage who in turn tightened the security. If there was an Anbu nearby, they'd certainly sense the killing intent that the boy emitted and hopefully save her. So all she could do now was playing for time until hopefully an Anbu arrived.

She gulped the lump in her throat and hesitantly met the gaze of the dangerous genin in front of her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she answered weakly not able to suppress the trembling in her voice. That answer didn't satiate him though. His eyes narrowed, sand and chakra swirled around him.

"You look at me like you know me. You see through every single one of my jutsus. You foil my plans. But you're slow. You're weak. Why did they chose someone like you to be a proctor in these exams?" he stated, his voice getting icier with every word spoken while his sand slowly started to wrap around the frightened girl's body starting from the feet.

"I really don't know. I keep asking myself the same question. I'm not even a ninja." she defended herself panicking more and more with every inch of her body that got consumed by the deadly minerals.

"I have good eyesight, that's why I'm able to foresee your attacks. I see the sand grains."

At this the sand halted in its movement.

"Good eyesight?" Gaara questioned sceptically. She nodded frantically. Then she calmed down a bit and nervously looked to the ground.

"Can I ask you something?"

He raised a nonexistent eyebrow.

"What?" he replied coldly. The girl nervously chewed on her bottom lip. But the boy didn't have much patience and the sand continued to engulf her already reaching to her waist. This made the the girl yelp in panic.

"I-It's your eyes." she quickly answered and heaved a sigh of relief as the sand stopped again.

"What about them?" he demanded icily.

"They are so similar to my friend's. She used to have that very same expression in them like you do."

"And you call yourself a friend?" he scoffed a dark smirk appearing on his face.

"You people take so much pride in this thing you call _friendship_. And then you let those precious _friends_ of yours suffer and wail in pain while you avert your ignorant eyes and spout nonsense about those _deep bonds_ you share." he spat his features turning more and more maniacal.

"W-What do you mean?" Nicci asked, confused and hurt by those harsh words.

His smirk turned into a mask of hatred and madness.

"I mean that that _friend_ of yours was suffering from unimaginable pain and loneliness." he explained to her with something similar to amusement in his voice.

"But of course you couldn't see it. You never experienced this sort of pain in your life before." he stated, smirk vanishing and face getting serious with a dark gleam in his eyes.

"You're right." Nicci admitted with her gaze on the ground.

"I had a sheltered life. I had many friend and loving parents. I never was lonely in my life." she whispered and tears gathered in the corner of her eyes when she thought about her mother and her friends. But she shook her head to clear her head and looked at the boy with resolve in her eyes.

"But just because I can't comprehend that pain doesn't mean I can't try to lift the burden off her shoulders." she stated. Of course there was no way to make it up to Sam as she would never be able to get back to her own world again but that didn't stop her. There surely was a way for her to make it up to her friend somehow.

"You can't do anything." the boy sneered his face again warping into a mask of madness. "Because I will kill you here and now."

The sand tightened around the girl's body and made her gasp for air.

"Now let me feel that I'm alive." he whispered.

Nicci was petrified by fear as she watched in horror the boy taking a step towards her, sand raising menacingly from behind him.

Then she sensed something. A strong chakra signature was approaching rapidly.

"An Anbu will arrive in a few seconds. You should get out of here." she told him desperately but he didn't react. Instead more sand shot out from his gourd, a huge wave now towering behind him.

The girl counted the seconds until her rescue would arrive but to her it felt like an eternity. The redhead slowly raised his hand towards her and she began to doubt that the Anbu would make it in time.

A huge mass of sand shot forward at the girl that squeezed her eyes shut. But just as it was about to crush her it only hit the blank wall where the girl was pinned against until just now. The boy turned his head to the right to spot his prey in the arms of a masked shinobi.

'Anbu' he thought grimly, his thoughts sobering from the sight of the sudden intruder. The sand retreated back into his gourd as he turned his back to the girl and her saviour.

"I will still kill you." he stated with an icy voice before disappearing in a swirl of sand.

Nicole stared at the spot the boy had occupied just a moment ago her whole body shaking and her hand practically clawed into the Anbu's shoulder.

"Are you all right?" he asked her, voice muffled by the bear mask.

She wasn't able to say a word still paralysed with fear. Instead tears started rolling down her cheeks and sobs escaped her throat.

The man, judging from his voice and stature, carried her to the couch slowly setting her down.

The girl tried to suppress the sobs but didn't succeed. The shinobi patted her back in a soothing manner.

"It's okay, girl." he said trying to calm her "You're safe now. Asuma-san was informed and will arrive here shortly. No one will reproach you."

"Ibiki-san will be angry." the brunette whimpered between her sobs. "Because I'm weak."

The Anbu couldn't help but chuckle at that and ruffled her hair.

"Ibiki-sama already suspected that a civilian girl like yourself wouldn't be able bear this kind of situation."

She sniffled lightly before glancing up to the bear mask her eyes red and swollen from the tears. She didn't know how but this man managed to calm her down. Something about him was comforting.

"Thanks for saving me." she finally managed to say with a hoarse but firm voice.

The man chuckled again.

"Don't mention it, girl."

Still, she never would have thought that death could be such a frightening thing after she had already experienced it once. The truth was that her first death was so sudden that she didn't couldn't comprehend it in the beginning. But waiting for her own death as it slowly but inevitably approached her, that fear and helplessness she felt, this was 1000 times worse! She would've never thought that two deaths could differ so much from each other.

She felt Asuma's chakra at the front door and the Anbu as well had noticed it as he ruffled through her hair one last time before flickering away.

And just the moment Asuma entered the flat and closed the door behind the girl rushed towards him and wrapped her arm around the much taller man's waist.

"Asuma-saaaaan!" she whined and the jonin couldn't help but rub her back reassuringly with a helpless smile. Just as he was on his way to visit Kurenai an Anbu appeared in front of him and reported of what had happened. He rushed back to his apartment at full speed worried about his protégée, but seeing her unharmed and well set him on ease.

Though he still had to talk with the Anbu about what exactly had happened. The bearded man wouldn't tolerate someone under his care being attacked just like that. Most of all in his own apartment!

* * *

~o_o~

* * *

Whaaat? Hayate's alive? Who would have guessed that!

As you see Nicci's presence in the Naruverse shows first little chances! Wonder what's up next... Hmmmmh...

Also, if you like these girl-falls-into-the-Naruverse story check out "Quest for Coffee!" by FluffyDragonsLifeInMyHouse! It's really well written and funny and I know that this is shameless advertisement, but you should still check it out and say hi to her for me if you're at it! ;)


	16. The calm before the storm

Hey there!

Wow! I got so many reviews on the last chapter, I was just speechless! I love you all for the support and love you show to this story! You're awesome! *cries tears of joy and joins Lee and Gui in the sunset*

I know I'm really late with this update and I'M SO SORRY! *bows in apology*

Even though I knew exactly what I wanted to write I just couldn't get it down! And now after FINALLY being able to write SOMETHING it turned out rather short. But since I really wanted to give you at least something I just decided to leave it like that. At least the next chapter should provide you with more entertainment, so until now enjoy this little prelude to the main event!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 16: The calm before the storm

"Nicci, don't run off." Asuma warned the girl who merrily skipped through the wide entrance halls of the stadium where today the finals of the chunin exams would take place.

"You know I can't get lost." the girl chirped and watched the giant crowd of people who streamed into the huge stadium and to the numerous food stalls and to the stands in the arena looking for family, friends or simply empty seats to be able to witness today's main event.

"Still." the man mumbled, just because _she _couldn't get lost didn't keep her from being abducted while he wasn't looking. Sighing the man paid the entrance fee for them both before following the girl that skillfully and swiftly weaved through the crowd.

All the people milling around the halls similar to ants on their anthill should normally make it impossible for the girl to find her way as she was at least one head shorter than the majority of the people around her. But she navigated through the masses with such precision and determination into a fixed direction, that it seemed like she was guided by an invisible light.

But as the jonin knew the truth behind her behavior he couldn't help put nod in approval of the remarkable development of her sensory skills. No wonder Ibiki-san decided to introduce her to the Intelligence Division, he thought.

Who would have guessed that the girl who once fell from the sky could one day become a supporting pillar for the hidden village Konohagakure? He certainly didn't, after all they still never were able to find out anything about her background. But after spending so many month together with her he had started to grow fond of her, kinda like a little sister or daughter. She also integrated herself so well into his team that it was hard not to think of her as one of them.

Which made the incident on the day before even more aggravating to him.

A genin from another village that dared to attack his protégée, in his very own apartment nonetheless, he couldn't tolerate that.

But with the assault on Hayate Gekko a few days earlier that week as well as the rumors about Orochimaru's return that circulated among the jonin, the higher-ups grew anxious. Something bad was going to happen and it would most definitely take place during the finals today.

But because disqualifying the Suna boy just the day before the fights would most certainly alert whoever was planning a move against Konoha and lead to unpredictable results, they had to turn a blind eye on it. Instead all shinobi were urged to stay on alert at all times during the time the finals took place.

It also didn't change the fact that the boy named Gaara would definitely prove to be dangerous as he tried not only to kill Nicci but Rock Lee as well.

"Asuma-san over there." Nicci exclaimed and ripped the man out of his trail of thoughts. She pointed to a row of seats where Ino and some other genin were sitting.

On the other side of the aisle he could recognize Kurenai. The seat next to her was empty and when she noticed him standing on the steps of the aisle next to the girl she gave him a warm smile an motioned him to come over.

"You can join Ino, I'll be over there keeping an eye on you, alright?" he told the girl and got a mischievous grin in response as she followed his gaze.

"But don't do indecent things while I'm not looking." she told him with a wink and ran off to her friend before her guardian could strangle her with a crimson face.

"Hey, Nicci-chan!" the blonde greeted happily as Nicole took a seat next to her.

"Hey, Ino, and... I believe your name was Sakura?"

"Yes." the pink-haired girl sitting to Ino's right answered with a smile.

"So, what did I miss?"

"Nothing, really. Sasuke and that Dosu guy are still missing though." Ino explained but the mention of Sasuke's name made Sakura suddenly turn all gloomy.

"Don't worry, Sakura, Sasuke will definitely make it in time." the blonde tried to cheer up her childhood friend.

"So, are you also one of emo-boy's fangirls?" Nicci interrupted the two girls with an impassive expression on her face.

"Don't call Sasuke-kun that! And besides I'm his teammate." the pinkette defended herself.

"But still a fangirl." Nicci retorted bored noticing the typical signs of fangirlism – defending the object of desire against any sorts insults, the dreamy look and blush when thinking of him, the increased heart beat rate and dilated pupils when talking about him and many many more.

"I guess." she finally admitted with a sheepish smile and scratched her cheek with a slight blush, before her face turned dark with concern. "But I'm still worried about him though..."

"Could it be" the brunette mumbled as she watched the girl with curiosity in her eyes "That you're actually _really_ in love with that guy?"

This question made the bubblegum-haired girl blush bright red.

"Of course she is! Just as I am!" Ino decided to answer instead, blushing ever so slightly when thinking of her dark prince.

"As his teammate, Sakura got the chance to get to know Sasuke while working together with him and is still in love with him, so she got real feelings for that guy. No offense to you Ino but from what you told me, you're just a fangirl running after him because of his looks and his bad boy aura." Nicci explained and felt bad for her cold words against Ino, but the girl knew what true feelings were when she had them just in front of her, especially when compared to Ino's more shallow crush on the boy. She knew very well that it was rude to have said that but the blonde had to get over her little crush to finally be able to move on, since it was clear as day that the emotionless emo-boy would never take interest in her blond friend.

"My feeling _are_ real! How could they not when Sasuke-kun's just so wonderful and perfect?" the blonde answered with irritation but ended up in another fangirl moment.

"Really? I don't know about you but I prefer to spend some time with someone and get to know them better before deciding if they are 'wonderful' and 'perfect'." Nicci retorted and watched her friend go silent and let the words sink in. She put her hand on the blonde's shoulder encouragingly and gave her an apologetic smile.

"You're such a pretty girl and there are so many cute boys out were. You deserve someone who really cares for you and can make you happy."

"You talk big, you know? How come you're such an 'expert' on love things?" Sakura questioned her doubtfully after listening to her little preaching.

"I've fallen in love several times already and helped enough friends with their love problems to realize when feelings get serious. I've even been in a serious relationship for quite a while myself, you know? Of course I don't know everything, but most of the time I can tell when someone harbors deeper feelings." the brunette explained but still felt guilty for meddling so much with those girls' love problems. Not that she could change it now, though.

"And what happened to that relationship?" the pinkette asked curiously.

Nicci's face turned to a frown when she answered.

"He cheated on me. With my former best friend."

"Oh... I'm sorry." Sakura quickly apologized realizing that she had opened an old wound.

"Then he wasn't worth it. Listen to your own advise and find someone who really cares for you. And you're right. I really should get over Sasuke-kun already and move on." Ino stated with a smile and patted the sulking brunette's back before turning to her old love rival.

"Sakura, I will give up on Sasuke-kun so I'll leave him to you. Do your best, okay?"

The other girl's eyes widened with surprise before her lips formed a smile and she nodded in determination.

Nicole watched the two childhood friends with a smile on her face. It was good to see that the love rivalry that destroyed their former friendship would finally come to an end. Shikamaru would surely be relieved as well because this also meant the end of the girls' constant bickering and fighting which annoyed the lazy boy so much. Come to think of it...

"We missed the start of the first fight." Nicci realized and instantly all three girls turned their attention to the two boys fighting inside the arena.

The match was surprisingly interesting to watch for Nicole not least because of her special ability. How this Neji guy was able to disrupt the chakra flow inside the blonde's body to the extent of him not even being able to use jutsus anymore fascinated the girl to no ends. The chakra system was truly a tricky thing. From what she learned in her lessons one had to hit certain pressure points to be able to reach such results but as those points were so small and inside the body it was impossible to distinguish them. But she also heard that those strange eyes, Byakugan as they were called, were able to see the chakra system and thus making it possible for the user to hit those pressure points.

Intrigued by this ability the girl stared at the long-haired boy's pale pupilless eyes. It was the first time that she saw the Byakugan in action.

Ten minutes later...

"I never would have thought that this idiot would actually be able to beat Neji." Ino exclaimed stunned at the sight before her. After activating the red foreign chakra inside him Naruto was able to make jutsus again and in the end beat his opponent. Nicci remembered when back in the hospital the boy explained that he had a monster sealed inside his body and finally understood where this red chakra came from as well as the dark feeling that emanated from it. This world never ceased to amaze her, the girl thought astonished.

"Yeah, especially since he was the dead last back in the academy." Sakura agreed amazed.

"Oh, that's right. He wasn't even able to make one decent clone back then."

"Really? Hard to believe since clones were his main weapons in this match." Nicci noted fascinated. That boy seemed to have great potential. And if even a seemingly bad student as Naruto was able to become a decent ninja, why shouldn't she?

After the end of the first match the crowd slowly got more and more restless and Nicci noticed why. The fight between Gaara and Sasuke should take place now but the Uchiha still didn't arrive yet.

Curiously she glanced to where the Hokage and the Kazekage were located, both discussing something. Probably about what to do about the match. Then something caught Nicci's eye. The two guards standing on either side of the Kazekage, not only did they have a genjutsu cast upon them – a henge by the look of it – they even had two different chakra sources inside of them. Two completely different chakra signatures in one body disguised by a henge. And rather strong signatures as well, from what she could tell. Did the Kazekage bring four guards instead of two? But then, why would he do that? Wasn't he allowed to bring more than two guards and wanted additional protection? Or was it something else?

But regarding the incidents that piled up one after another since these stupid exams started she couldn't help but feel anxious about it.

She inconspicuously scanned her surroundings and found about 6 Anbu watching the area. Some coming, some going, but all in all the number of present guards remained constant. She had to report to Ibiki and those Anbu could take her to him. But the many lessons of the interrogation specialist had made her cautious and paranoid. Could she really trust all those Anbu?

Carefully searching the area with her abilities her attention focused on a certain guard close to her.

"Sorry Ino, I have something to do." she apologized to her friend and left the girls in confusion as she rose from her seat and squeezed past the other spectators to slowly make her way to the Anbu that silently stood in the back, watching the events.

On her way her eyes crossed with the questioning gaze of Asuma. She gave him a concerned nod and saw his expression turn into a frown before she continued to climb the stairs until she stood right in front of the masked shinobi that turned to look at the small girl, his expression hidden behind a familiar mask.

"Mr. Bear mask-san." Nicci greeted the man silently but loud enough for him to hear.

"Everett-san." he returned the greeting with a soft voice that implied a small smile.

"Can you please take me to Ibiki-san?" she asked with determination in her eyes as the man kept watching her in silence from behind his mask.

"As you wish." he finally answered before placing a hand on her shoulder and flickering away together with the girl.

Moments later the girl found herself on a roof not far from the arena they were in just seconds ago. Apart from herself and the bear mask there were two other Anbu on this roof as well as Ibiki who was giving out orders to a jonin. After the jonin flickered away the interrogation specialist turned to the new arrivals.

Bear mask bowed shortly to the special jonin before taking a step back, implying to give the word to the brown-haired girl.

"Everett, what did you find?" Ibiki asked her not wanting to beat around the bush since the next jonin had already appeared to report.

Nicci startled for a moment. Had he actually expected her to report to him even though she officially got this day off?

She quickly shook off her surprise and reported to her mentor the discoveries she made about the guards of the Kazekage.

The man nodded curtly and took merely two seconds to process the new information before replying.

"Every guest – including the Kazekage – is only allowed to have two guards. He is definitely hiding something." he explained to the girl before turning to the Anbu behind her.

"Anything new from squads B and C?"

"Not yet. They should still be scouting the area since we haven't heard anything of them yet." bear mask replied shaking his head, though a tad of unease was resonating in his voice which didn't go unnoticed by the special jonin.

"We're not in the position to leave anything to chance. Does their lack of response concern you?"

"Yes." the Anbu admitted.

"Then we'll look into it." Ibiki replied before addressing the girl that had followed their conversation with curiosity. "Everett, scan the area, especially around the borders of the village. Report any chakra signatures you can find."

The girl quickly nodded and gulped before closing her eyes and concentrating on her sensor abilities. The area her mentor ordered her to scan was far too big to grasp as a whole. But she was able to work it off bit by bit and so she did.

Five minutes had already passed and with every passing minute the anxiousness on the brunette's face grew.

"Ibiki-san." she finally called out after finishing her task, sweat drops gathering on her forehead and exhaustion gnawing on her from the excessive use of her ability. "We might have a problem."

_'Sorry Shikamaru'_ she thought silently, still seeing the hordes of chakra signatures in front of her inner eye as they were trooping up just outside the borders of Konoha and slowly advanced towards the walls surrounding the village. _'I'm afraid I won't be able to watch your match after all.'_

* * *

~End of chapter~

* * *

I know, I know, a 13-year-old that preaches others about love? To defend her, she didn't mean to talk about the one real love or something like that, but about the difference of a small crush and actually being in love with someone and I believe that at her age a girl should slowly be able to differentiate between those two things if she had had at least enough crushes herself.

And admit it, didn't all that BS fangirl talk about loving Sasuke get on you nerves as well? At least now Ino can stop being an annoying fangirl and start looking for a more suitable boyfriend than the duckbutt. I don't have any particular pairing in mind though, so if you may have someone in mind you'd like to have paired with Ino, please tell me! ;)

Sakura continued to stay a fangirl since I believe that she really does love the duckbutt, not so sure of the 'why' though... xD

If you liked this chapter, have any opinion or suggestions on how to make it better or just some spare time at your hand, please leave me a review! Reviews make authors happy, you know~~~? x3


	17. Konoha under attack (1)

Hey there! Oh my Jashin! Look! An update!

1. Thanks for all the reviews, favs, alerts and views! I love you guys! Seriously!

2. I'm so sorry that this chapter took so long! I tried hard to come up with something good since I got so many lovely rieviews and all but it turned out this chapter was incredibly hard to write! I'd just stared at the screen for hours and nothing would come to my mind! Then I got forcibly recruited- errr kindly asked to join that club from my university and exams are getting nearer... Yeah, life sucks!

3. There'll be some major rambling at the end of this chapter so if you have questions about some parts of this chapter maybe you can find answers there, if not just PM me ;)

I first intended to cover the whole invasion part in this chapter but since it took -what- 4 hours to write just this I decided to upload what I already have to give you lovely guys at least _something_. Hope you still enjoy and I try my best to not let you wait this long for the next chapter but sadly I can't promise anything.

EDIT: Changed the chapter title since one lovely reviewer told me that it wasn't quite fitting. Thanks again for telling me! ;)

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 17: Konoha under attack (1)

"Sectors B3 and B4 are clear."

"Evacuation of sectors C1 to 3 was successful."

"The last families in sectors C4 have been escorted to the secret shelters."

"Still no news from squad B, Ibiki-sama."

The shinobi came and went to report to the interrogation expert that was rubbing his temples while trying to sort out his next moves. No doubt the enemy would make their move soon and they haven't even evacuated all the civilians yet.

"The last civilians in sectors D2 and 3 are being evacuated. All that's left are sectors E3 and F3 and a family that was forgotten in D1." Nicole reported to the man while scanning the village for any civilians that the evacuation troops could have missed.

She was standing on the edge of the rooftop with both her hands clutching the handrails that were securing the edge while she observed the area for any chakra movements.

"And three groups of enemy shinobi are gathering around the village walls. From what I can tell they are preparing some sort of jutsu." she further reported.

"Probably a summoning jutsu." the special jonin commented "What's their exact position?"

"Six shinobi at the eastern gate in sector B, seven in the clearing outside the wall between sectors C and D, and five outside sector E near the western gate."

"Eastern gate... That's where squad B should have been patrolling." Ibiki muttered before he turned to a random chunin that awaited his orders.

"You, sent reinforcements to the eastern gate and take an Anbu squad with you to stop the ritual."

"Understood." the man answered and headed into the designed direction soon being joined by other shinobi.

"Kuma!" Ibiki called out and waited for the bear mask wearing Anbu to appear moments later after he had called his code name.

"Yes, Ibiki-sama."

"Take your squad and prevent the other two rituals from being completed. Support the troops at the eastern gate afterwards."

"Hai." he answered curtly and flickered away.

Nicci listened to the conversation with one ear while concentrating on her task at hand. But she couldn't help but expand her senses wistfully to the arena where Shikamaru's fight against the sand kunoichi just had ended. She would have loved to watch her friend's battle since she never was able to see him in action until now and she couldn't even tell who had won. But she knew very well that her current task was way more important than her selfish desires. She was helping to save lives and protect the place that she was able to call home. The place that took her in when she stranded in this strange world. So she'd do her best to repay that debt and protect the village from the upcoming attack to the best of her abilities.

* * *

On the roofs on the outskirts of the village three figures could be seen jumping from one roof to the next with rapid speed, heading for the western gate.

All three figures wore black cloaks and had their face hidden behind a mask, each depicting a different animal.

The one taking the lead wore a bear shaped mask while the one flanking him on the right side had one in the shape of a goose.

The one following those two to the bear mask's left wore a wolf mask.

In silence they traveled to the huge wall that rose in front of them. Without a noise they landed on its top to observe their surroundings. After tracing not a single soul they nodded to each other before heading into the forest that outstretched in front of them.

It didn't take long for them to find their target.

"Here's Gachou. Spotted the enemy. They really are preparing a summoning ritual." the Anbu with the goose mask whispered lowly but it was enough for his teammates to hear his words through the little microphones they had attached to their throats. Those handy gadgets caught the vibrations of the vocal chords and transmitted them to the receiver-earplugs they all wore. This way it didn't matter if the spoken word was nothing but a silent murmur, the team colleagues would still be able to understand.

"Here's Kuma. Stay put until Okami and I arrive. Make sure not to be spotted."

"Of course. How long have we been on the same team." Gachou answered rolling his eyes behind his mask.

"Far too long." Kuma replied with a light chuckle. He knew very well that his teammate would never make such a beginner's mistake but this sort of orders became routine for him after being squad leader on several different teams for three years now.

"Okami here. Have visual contact with the target."

"Good. Okami, position yourself to have a clean line of fire. Gachou, cast a genjutsu around them so they can't give alarm should something go wrong."

"Roger that."

"Sure thing."

"Then, go." Kuma exclaimed and drew his katana from the sheath he kept hidden under his cloak, kneeling on a branch and waiting for the wolf masked shinobi to initiate the attack.

And he didn't have to wait long.

The enemy shinobi, sound judging from their forehead protectors, were gathered around a circle made up of inscribed scrolls. These were spread out on the ground in a circular form with their ends connecting in the center where another sheet of white cloth was positioned that bore the kanji for 'snake' on it. The five oto-nin knelt each in front of one of the scrolls, infusing the black inked inscription with their chakra when the first one suddenly slumped forward. The ninja next to the unmoving man shook his shoulder, mumbling a "What's wrong" before he noticed a senbon sticking out of his neck where it had pierced the jugular vein. But before he could even turn to where the attack came from a set of senbon already pierced his left eye as well as his side where the kidneys were located.

The other three sound-nin had drawn their weapons to deflect the rain of senbon that was showering down on them just moments after.

Kuma used this distraction to dash at the first one, a firm grip on his dear katana _Ama no Murakumo, _and sliced with a swift horizontal stroke trough his ribcage into his lungs. While the opponent went down with blood and gurgling sounds escaping his mouth the Anbu didn't stop in his movements. With a step forward he ripped the purple shimmering blade out of the dying man's body and slided his left food backwards to swirl around in a fluent rotational movement to slice at the second ninja that went to attack him with a kunai. This one managed to block the first strike but then found himself confronted with a shower of cuts and slices in such speed impossible for the man to keep up with. The light reflected on the blade and cast purple reflexions that were the only indication of the dance-like movements the sword was executing as the Anbu swirled around the shinobi inflicting fatal wound after wound.

With one last thrust of the swordsman the cool steel sliced through the oto-nin's chest before he turned his back and calmly walked away, face hidden behind the emotionless mask as his opponent sunk to his knees, blood spraying out of the innumerable cuts that covered his whole body.

The last oto-nin that had watched the deathly sword dance was shivering in fear. But as he turned around to make a run for it a chakra infused senbon pierced right through his right eye, drilling itself into his skull. He wanted to let out a scream to vocalize the excruciating pain that shot through his body but found himself unable to as another needle hit his vocal chords.

Without as much as another glance at the dead bodies, the bear mask wearing Anbu wiped the blood on his sword off on the clothes of one of the deceased before sheathing it and turning to his comrades who exited their cover in the woods to join their captain.

"You killed two and I got three. Looks like I won this time." wolf mask exclaimed with amusement in his voice, indicating that he was grinning underneath his mask.

"Not quite." Gachou commented as he rested a blueish glowing hand on the head of the still breathing sound ninja that was hit in the neck by a senbon at the beginning of the massacre – for the lack of a more fitting word – for a few seconds before he raised the head to slice the dying man's throat with a kunai and efficiently ended his life.

"This makes 2:2. It's a draw."

"Pah. They were too weak to make a competition out of anyway." Okami retorted and waved it off to overplay his annoyance about the nitpicking of his comrade and his resulting loss.

"We don't have time for playing games anyway. Got any valuable information out of him, Gachou?" Kuma interrupted the two Anbu.

"Yes. This village, Otogakure, was built by Orochimaru, who is the one behind this invasion. He was also able to win Sunagakure over as an ally, though how he did it and what his intentions are, is unknown."

"Orochimaru is always bad news." the squad leader mused and his team colleagues could practically see the deep frown forming behind his mask.

"Anyway, there's still a ritual we have to stop. So let's go."

"Hai." they replied in unison and immediately followed after their leader as he moved onto the direction of the next target.

* * *

"The first ritual was successfully stopped. The assassination squad is on their way to the next target." Nicci reported while mentally noting to herself to remember the chakra signature of the squad for the future. This situation she was in made her painfully clear that sensing alone wasn't nearly enough to effectively transfer information when she couldn't even distinguish between friend and foe. So she realized that she had to remember as many chakra signatures of her Konoha allies as possible to be of more help the next time her abilities were needed.

"What about the backup for the eastern gate?" Ibiki questioned.

"They just reached their destination. From what I can tell the enemy engaged them in battle already."

The interrogator frowned. The invasion didn't even start yet and they already had to count losses on their side. But now the remaining question was, what were they waiting for to officially start their attack?

"What's the status at the arena?"

"The battle between Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara of the desert started a few minutes ago." the brunette answered before gulping whatever threatened to let her voice tremble "Gaara tries to access the demon chakra."

Ibiki nodded. Guy had already informed the Hokage about the true nature of the boy being a Jinchuriki who in turn transferred the information to the T&I department. If Suna really was behind the invasion, then the boy could prove to be troublesome.

His thought process got cut short when Nicole informed him of her newest observations.

"The enemy makes their move. Their troops are getting rapidly closer and a mass genjutsu got cast inside the stadium." she told him with cold sweat gathering on her forehead. "The assassination squad was successful in stopping the second ritual but our troops have trouble defending the eastern gate. If it keeps up the enemy forces will complete the third ritual."

Ibiki growled before turning to a chunin that was already awaiting orders.

"Tell our troops to stay prepared. The enemy will reach us any minute now." he yelled at the man "And send more forces to the eastern gate. We can't afford to lose it."

The chunin nodded and headed off leaving behind the interrogation specialist who felt a migraine building up inside his head. With a long sigh he massaged the bridge of his nose.

"That's gonna be some fun."

* * *

"You were careless." Gachou stated flatly as he rested his hands on the bleeding shoulder of Okami a green glow emitting off of them that covered the wound in its light.

"Geez, I know already." the wolf mask-wearing Anbu growled while he watched his teammate closing his wound.

"That's what you get when you underestimate your enemy." Kuma retorted with a reprimanding voice.

"Those guys earlier were merely lower chunin level, who would have thought there'd be such a big difference in strength..." Okami growled, mad at himself for making such a beginner's mistake as letting the enemy get behind him.

"You're lucky I got him before he could inflict any serious wounds." Gachou chuckled lightly which sent the other two men chills down their spine. Seeing their teammate and healer practically disemboweling the oto-nin in a matter of seconds with a kunai wasn't a sight they enjoyed. He normally acted so polite and modest it was so easy to forget he was actually the worst sadist they ever met.

"You haven't changed at all, Gachou. Not since the first time we met when we got stuck in the same genin team." Kuma remarked, amusement in his voice.

"Isn't that a good thing?" the healer chuckled again before finishing his work on the now closed wound.

Okami moved his shoulder in a circling motion and nodded contently at the well done work of his friend.

"So, what are w-"

"Shhh!" Gachou interrupted Okami in whatever he was gonna say.

"Some enemy troops got caught in my genjutsu." he explained in a low voice, the holes of his mask fixated at the forest in front of them.

"So the invasion finally began, huh?" Kuma stated with a low chuckle and lazily drew his sword as he watched the arriving oto- and suna-nin that stepped out from behind trees.

Okami joined his teammate with an amused laugh as he pulled out four senbon in each hand, each one pinched between two fingers. Electricity started to flow through the needles creating a low humming sound and little sparks jumped between the metal pins.

"I guess so. Let's see who gets the most kills this time."

* * *

~End of chapter~

* * *

Okay, I officially suck at fighting scenes...

_About the sword_: I got my hands on a wonderful game (_Dark Chronicle_) that made up a great part of my childhood - apart from pokemon that is. I totally fell in love with it all over again and that's where the sword comes into play. I was able to evolve my sword into _Ama no Murakumo_ and of course I wanted to try out my new sword and then OH MY JASHIN it was soooo AMAZING! The speed was so incredible in comparision to all the swords I had before and I instantly fell in love with it! And to show my love to this wonderful piece of metal I simply decided to make it part of my story! Easy as that!  
I am also aware that "Ama no Murakumo" is simply the old name of "Kusanagi" which is already existing in the Naruverse. But this one time I want to play the I'm-the-alighty-authoress-card and differentiate between those swords for the above mentioned reasons.  
The first fight of the assassination also turned into a simple massacre because of those reasions. Simply because that was the first impression I got from this lovely sword.

_About the Anbu-squad_: Even though it is said that Anbu were like the elite of shinobi and all that, I got the impression that manga and anime made them look less than anything near elite since they always were killed off like flies. I included Kuma and his squad because I wanted to show that Anbu are indeed amazingly strong ninjas. I also made those three OC's my new toys and I'm planning to use them more often (mainly for practicing my skills in writing fighting scenes, I fear...) so tell me please what you, as my dear readers, think of this squad and if you actually want to see more of them. Since there's nothing important planned for them (yet) I can still banish them into the deepest edges of my mind.

I also tried to show the development Nicci goes through inside her head and how her mindset changes through this event. For one she realises that she regards Konoha as a home and like many other shinobi comes to the decision that she wants to help and protect it. Secondly she realized weaknesses in her abilities and decides to want to erase those, thus showing that she finally wants to develop her skills and train on her own free will and not because everyone forces her to do so.

As many of you can probably guess, the next chapter will cover Sarutobi's fight against Orochimaru and let me tell you this one's gonna be a pain in the butt! There are so many future events dependent on this one fight and tiny changes could lead to a complete different future and I don't want to let it go completely AU so... I hope I come up with something satisfying enough and -more importantly- don't take forever to write it down.

As always, please leave a review to tell me your thoughts, suggestions, critique and/or whatever is on your mind, I make a happy dance for every review I get! ^^


	18. Konoha under attack (2)

Oh my Jashin, is that an update?!

I know I'm late as hell, but so much has gotten in the way! Preparations for exams, exams, three weeks without internet (OMJ I almost died back then! q.q)!

But when I finally found some time to write again, this chapter proved to be a real bitch to write! I had five different versions of only the beginning of this chapter and I'm still not content. But all I could do was making it worse so here you go!

* * *

**Gods' Game**

Chapter 18: Konoha under attack (2)

They were prepared. Weeks before the finals of the chunin exams started did they plan where to post guards, which security preparations to make. The same procedure as every event. And like all those the other times before did they hope for a peaceful conclusion to the exams. A day where civilians and officials alike could cheer for the striving genin representing their respective village and country. Where motivated children tried their hardest in the battles to impress their superiors to get the highly sought-after promotion to chunin.

But all those preparations, guards and plans suddenly seemed not even nearly enough when they got confronted with the troubling news of enemy forces besieging their village.

The Anbu frowned behind his mask. Those news also explained why squad B never returned from their patrol. They had been under his command, he had to bear the responsibility. Years of experience as an Anbu captain had hardened him but losing a whole squad was always tough. Especially since the real battle hadn't even started yet.

Now their job was to keep up a false air of security around the spectators to give them the experience of another peaceful event inside these walls while at the same time everything was brought into motion to keep the upcoming battle away from the arena. There was but a slim chance to success though, all those wars and battles he had fought in had taught him that.

Still it was his job to protect the people inside the stadium – which was the reason an additional squad was put under his command – and he'll do anything in his might to ensure nothing disturbed the carefree atmosphere.

He adjusted the tiger-shaped Anbu mask which gave him the codename "Tora" and straightened his white cloak while throwing a glance at the horse mask wearing Anbu to his right. Even though the mask concealed his identity, the few golden locks that escaped the dark hood of his black cloak revealed the Yamanaka blood flowing through his veins. This man, codename Ouma, had his gaze directed to the crowd underneath them seemingly to observe the masses of people that were swarming around on the stands like ants. But Tora knew that right now his subordinate received information from Yamanaka Inoichi to their current situation.

Ibiki's little apprentice, the foreigner girl called Everett Nicole, alarmed them of the condition of the Kazekage's bodyguards and was right now helping the interrogation specialist to locate the exact locations and movements of the enemy forces that were waiting just outside the walls of Konoha.

After all his years as a member of Anbu Tora would never dare to question the motives of his superiors but sometimes he couldn't help but wonder. How could they put so much trust into this foreign child? That strange girl that one day was found in the forest without any knowledge of their land or even their continent. That mysterious girl without memories, or at least memories accessible to their interrogation specialist. That suspicious girl that could hold so many dark secrets and dangerous knowledge that would easily come to the surface with a little help of torture...

He was one of the Anbu guarding the Hokage office at the time when Asuma's team had brought the child with them and when she was easily able to sense them even if not knowing – according to her at least – what or who they were. He admitted that he was impressed by her sensory abilities but he simply couldn't understand the trust the Hokage and other high-ranking shinobi put in her. Sure, her ability was rare – a great weapon and asset to their military forces when used correctly – but she was weak, in both body and soul.

This situation shall show her true strength and if she really was worth the trust his superiors put in her, Tora decided and tried to put these thoughts aside to concentrate on the task at hand. Which wasn't easy since he knew that the information Ouma was receiving was based on the words of said girl that had swindled her way into this village and its military forces.

"Baku confirmed the assumptions about the Kazekage's bodyguards. They were covered in a high-ranking henge and it wasn't easy but he was able to detect the two chakra signatures hidden inside each of them." Ouma reported in a pragmatic voice. Baku, another subordinate of Tora and part of his personal squad, was a branch family member of the Hyuga clan and very skilled in weaponless melee combat since he was a master of the gentle fist style. His Byakugan wasn't as greatly developed as in other clan members but good enough to trust his word when he confirmed the henge.

Tora nodded in confirmation to the report and put his right fore and middle finger on the little microphone attached to his throat to set the desired frequency.

"Ro squad, when the attack starts, focus on protecting the ministers but stay ready to assist us should the need arise." he murmured into the microphone, receiving a 'Roger' as response before he changed the frequency yet again.

"Kan squad, also keep an eye on the ministers since we still don't know their main target yet. Remember our goal is to keep the Hokage and officials safe and the number of victims among the civilians as low as possible."

Mere minutes later it finally started. A massive genjutsu got cast over the giant stadium and after they canceled it upon themselves the Anbu squads got order to act immediately.

Tora and Ouma moved out at once and dashed across the spectators' stands towards the higher located stand reserved for officials and the Kages. They got flanked by two more Anbu, Baku and Nezumi, who were positioned between the spectators, and the Ro squad.

Just before they reached their destination a smoke bomb exploded, blocking their view on the Kages' seats.

"Li team, above! Ro team, below! Protect the ministers!" Tora bellowed the command as they landed on the roof where the two teams split up. While the Ro squad used the momentum of the landing to change directions to jump down to the ministers' stands, the Li squad lead by Tora kept dashing forward right into the smoke.

"They're coming." Baku murmured into the little mic on his throat and his fellow team members readied their weapons just before the Kazekage's bodyguards came charging at them.

"Remember the plan." Tora reminded as he and Ouma ganged up on one opponent slicing simultaneously at ribcage and abdomen, Baku and Nezumi doing the same.

The squad leader felt the familiar resistance of bone and flesh against his sword and nodded to himself approvingly while he kept moving unperturbed towards the unknown threat in the smoke, Ouma close behind him like a shadow.

* * *

At the same time Baku and Nezumi ganged up on the "lower part" of one of the Kazekage bodyguards. Baku confirmed that they had only wounded the four disguised ninjas so they proceeded to take out the first opponent before the others regained themselves from the shock of their wounds.

While Nezumi, the rat mask wearing Anbu, immobilized the struggling boy with his kusarigama, Baku aimed with his gentle fist a deadly strike directly at his heart. The boy was convulsing one last time before he went limb and the chain of the kusarigama let go of his lifeless body.

"Jirobo!" one of the enemies, a two-headed boy, shouted his fallen comrade's name, hand pressed against his wounded shoulder.

"You assholes! You'll fucking regret that!" The only girl, a deep gash on her forearm, screamed and kept yelling curses at them while she slowly transformed in something that could only be described as a monster.

"No Tayuya! We don't have time for that!" a boy with six arms shouted.

"No, that's actually a good idea." the two-headed oto-nin interrupted. "Ukon can take Jirobo's place this way."

That said the boy also started transforming into a monstrous being. And as if this weren't enough already, his second head even started splitting itself off, effectively becoming a separate being.

"That's no good. Whatever they're planning we have to stop them." Nezumi growled and launched his sickle chain towards the freshly split body, though the six-armed boy got in the way and spat a spider web at the weapon, stopping it in its movement and rendering it useless.

"Tora, we may need some reinforcement here." Baku murmured his Byakugan making him able to see the monstrous chakra emitted by his opponents.

* * *

Tora dashed right into the smoke, sword ready in hand, to support the Hokage against the threat.

A shadow was escaping from the smoke screen onto the rooftop. The two Anbu immediately followed, ignoring the dead body of the Sandaime's personal guard lying in its own blood.

After landing on the roof though, they abruptly halted in their step when they saw the Kazekage holding their own leader hostage with a kunai pointed to his throat.

"Let go of Hokage-sama." the white-cloaked Anbu stated aloud though he doubted highly it'd be so easy.

A frown tugged on his lips when even Baku started to ask for backup. But just as he wanted to contact the Ro squad four shadows were flying right over his head and landing on the edges of the rooftop. Two of those figures were looking like outright monsters, one was a six-armed boy and the last one was a girl that changed from a monster back into a human form.

"What the-" Ouma murmured his normally stoic attitude slipping at the sight of those strange beings.

"Now." the Kazekage called out but the two Anbu reacted fast, quickly moving inside the quadrangular barrier the four shinobi formed around the rooftop.

Baku and Nezumi though weren't fast enough. Nezumi was able to come to a halt but Baku had put too much strength into his jump crashing right into the purple gleaming wall and instantly burned to his bones.

The Anbu captain gritted his teeth but now wasn't the time to mourn the loss of a comrade. The Sandaime was held hostage by the enemy and they had to do something to change that.

* * *

Sarutobi watched as one of his most loyal shinobi burned to death right before his eyes but did not show any of the emotions on his face that he felt.

"For the Sand to betray the Leaf." he told that held him captive with disappointed in his voice.

"An alliance is only useful as camouflage to make the enemy relax his guard." the Kazekage answered sounding slightly amused. "The stupid fighting game ends here. From here history changes."

"You want to start a war?" Hiruzen asked. Keep him talking. This way he got time to draw his own weapon and free himself from his captor's hold.

"Exactly."

"We should avoid solving things through force and work out our differences through negotiation." he explained. Distract him with words so he could form the needed seals from underneath his wide Kage robes. "Kazekage-dono, there is still time."

"Heh.." the Sand leader chuckled, his voice suddenly taking a completely different tone. One that sounded oddly familiar... "Do we become peace loving fools when we age...? Sarutobi-sensei."

…! … Sensei?

Concentration broken and jutsu forgotten the aged man stared at the Sand leader behind him. Could it be-

"You..."

But that man's attention was now down inside the arena on the Suna-genin that were fleeing the scene.

"So Gaara was useless..." the Kazekage mumbled to himself before he started chuckling in amusement, like this invasion was just a game and the lives lost mere broken toys. And this laughing was what finally confirmed the Sandaime's suspicions, that this Kazekage wasn't who he claimed to be and who really was behind all this chaos that broke out in his beloved village.

"I see. So that's it." he answered a grin appearing on his face. He must have really gotten old. For not seeing this coming...

"Your foolishness has caused the Leaf to fall further and further behind. I have won."

"It's not over till it's over. I thought I taught you that... Orochimaru!" Hiruzen said smirking while this former student ripped off his skin-like mask, finally showing his true face.

"I thought this day would come eventually. But you won't get my head so easily." he stated, getting serious again.

"I told you to hurry and pick the Fifth." Orochimaru answered unfazed by his sensei's warning, a bloodthirsty smirk forming on his face. "Because you will die here... Sandaime!"

* * *

The two Anbu watched in shock as the "Kazekage" ripped off his own face, revealing the pale skin of the Sannin Orochimaru. But they still didn't dare to move, not while a kunai was pointed at the Hokage's throat.

Only after Orochimaru stabbed his own hand and let go of the Sandaime did they dare to move. Sarutobi's composure kept them from instantly attacking Orochimaru though, so instead they observed the four sound-nin that were holding up the deadly barrier.

The moment the Hokage cast away his robes to show himself in his battle attire the two Anbu started to make their move. Dashing at the closest one, be six-armed boy, Tora threw two kunai both aimed at vital points. But the weapons never hit their target but instead burned away upon hitting the small barrier the boy raised around himself, his comrades following his example.

"Damn." Tora cursed.

Both Anbu turned and hurried to their leader's side ready to assist in battle.

"No." Sarutobi interrupted them.

"All this happened because of my weakness. Because I couldn't kill him the last time when I had the chance to. This time I will correct my mistake so I ask of you not to interfere in this fight."

Though stated as a request, the Anbu could clearly hear the order in it. So, although reluctant, they stepped aside to let the Sandaime fight his battle.

"My oh my, are you trying to save these nuisances' lives?" Orochimaru cooed with a sickeningly sweet voice. "It doesn't matter though because you will all die here!"

He darted forward, hands flickering to handseals. Sarutobi also charged forward, hands forming their own set of seals.

As the first to finish his seals, the Sandaime launched his Shuriken Kagebushin no Jutsu at his former student, trying to corner him with this wall of numerous razor sharp throwing stars.

But Orochimaru stopped this attack by summoning two coffins that acted as shields to ward off the deadly shuriken. The third coffin that he tried to summon was stopped by the Hokage but that little setback didn't really bother him. After all now he had two of the strongest Leaf shinobi of this village's history summoned to fight against his former teacher.

"This is really bad..." Tora murmured as he watched the Sandaime exchanging words with the First and Second Hokage.

Orochimaru implanted kunai with amulets attached into the two bodies' heads to take complete control over them.

Sarutobi didn't hesitate to launch a dragon flame bullet at the three shinobi but the Nidaime countered it with a water jutsu on his own thus efficiently canceling the fire jutsu out. Then he sent a water dragon jutsu right after which Sarutobi could barely block with an earth wall jutsu.

Tora was left breathless by this display of sheer power as he watched the clash of Hokage. But the Anbu couldn't afford to just watch any longer when the Shodaime created a deadly forest that sprouted whipping and striking roots out of the Sandaime's earth wall. They themselves just barely evaded the dangerous plants – mainly because this technique wasn't directed at them – but Hiruzen wasn't as lucky and got captured between the roots. Instinctively the Anbu moved to aid him but found it unnecessary when he summoned Enma to break free.

"Tora, Ouma, I have changed my mind." Hiruzen told the two "For the fight against my predecessors I may need your help."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" they chorused and instantly readied their weapons.

Enma turned himself into a giant staff waiting to be used by his master Sarutobi. Finally Orochimaru, who was content watching his former teacher getting beaten up until now, decided to join the battle and summoned a snake that revealed the legendary sword Kusanagi.

The Sandaime frowned, Enma was already complaining about what a pain in the ass this sword would be. But he ignored the complaints of his partner and charged head-on, weapon clashing against weapon.

The Snake struggled against the force behind Sarutobi's hit but smirked as the Nidaime moved to attack him. But his kick was stopped by the Shodaime who grabbed onto his younger brother's arms to hold him in place.

"Mind Destruction Jutsu successful." Ouma reported as he controlled the Shodaime's body through his jutsu to restrain the Second's edo tensei body.

"How long can you hold it?" Tora asked, still forming various seals too fast for the normal eye to follow.

"Long enough. With their mind erased like this it's rather easy to control them."

Orochimaru frowned, these weak Anbu were really becoming a nuisance. He swung his sword at the apparent Yamanaka clan member, but got intercepted by a smirking Hiruzen.

"Getting nervous, Orochimaru?" he couldn't help but mock the frowning Sannin.

In this moment Tora formed the last seal, summoning four stone pillars that rose from the ground around the two reincarnated Hokage, trapping them in a chakra barrier and rendering them immobile.

"Earth release: Four Pillar Sealing Technique." he murmured and formed few more handseals to make the pillars tilt until the pyramid formed tips were touching each other. Then the whole construction sunk back into the ground taking the two reincarnated bodies with it and the only thing left behind was a seal on the shattered ground of the rooftop.

"Sealing successful" the Anbu reported receiving an appreciating nod from the Sandaime.

"Great. Now my toys are gone." Orochimaru pouted. But when he felt the pressure of the staff against his sword cease a smirk crept back on his face.

"Getting tired, old man?" he mocked before he used enough force to shove the staff away thus creating an opening in his teacher's defense which he shamelessly stroke at.

Sarutobi reacted quickly to dodge but the sword strike was too fast and gave him a deep wound across his chest.

"You've grown old, haven't you? I've never seen you strain so much." the Snake scoffed and started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Hiruzen questioned afraid that his former student had completely lost his mind now.

"It's so pitiful you know. Even you who has been hailed as the God of shinobi cannot defeat old age." he explained and, to the shock of everyone present, ripped off his own face. And revealed the totally new face – and body – of a teenager.

"Who are you?" Hiruzen demanded to know. This face. It was completely unknown to him. But still. This attitude and the way he moved his body, both never let him doubt this man's identity as Orochimaru.

"Hehehehehe..." the teenager laughed and smirked at the Hokage, his – Orochimaru's – snake eye sparkled evilly. "Is it that much of a shock? It's me, Orochimaru."

One look at the Sandaimes face was enough for Tora to understand. He had heard of Orochimaru's gruesome experiments all those years ago. They said he tried to create a jutsu to make himself immortal. Could it be– had he succeeded?!

Then the Snake went even farther and after explaining how he achieved immortality he revealed his intention on possessing the Uchiha boy's body.

Sarutobi's face turned into a deep scowl.

"I'll kill you now and correct my past mistake." he announced and exchanged meaningful glanced with his two subordinates. They instantly understood. This was no longer a dispute between a teacher and student, but a battle for the life of a citizen of Konohagakure and all the other victims that would have to lose their lives just to let this psychopath prolong his own end.

The Anbu moved around the nukenin to block potential escape paths while the Hokage started to relentlessly attack the man with his staff who defended himself with the Kusanagi. Orochimaru succeeded in blocking all thrusts and hits from the staff but wasn't let enough time to counterattack. When Hiruzen launched a direct thrust with the giant staff at him he blocked it with the sword and slid it along its black surface to start a counterattack and simultaneously prevent his teacher to swing the blunt weapon at him. But before the snake was able to strike Enma stretched his hand out of the staff to grab the arm that held onto the sword.

Orohimaru hissed threateningly at the ape and released several snakes from his arm to attack the ape and free his arm. The Hokage – who had let go of the now completely transformed summon – had used this distraction to form handseals but Orochimaru reacted quickly, jumping backwards to evade the oncoming jutsu. Unfortunately he hadn't paid much attention to the two Anbu who started a combination attack while he was in midair and unable to maneuver out of the way. They both held on to one end of a wire and moved around the Sannin to wrap him with the wire and rendering him immobile for the jutsu the Hokage had already prepared and waited for his moment to strike. He exhaled a huge ball of flame that took on the form of a dragon which gave this jutsu the name of "Fire Dragon Flame Bullet".

With a growl Orochimaru cut through the chakra infused wire with Kusanagi but since he was held in the air by the thread he wasn't able to gain the momentum needed to escape the scorching flame. He summoned a barrier of snakes from his arms to form a wall against the all consuming fire and the biting stench to burned flesh filled the air as the Flame Bullet burned through his summons and consumed his arms.

He hissed in pain as the fire burned into his flesh but he didn't have much time to tend to his badly burned arms because after the fire had died down the two Anbu started to attack him with kunai and sword.

Realizing that his hands were to injured to hold onto his sword any longer or to form handseals he summoned more snakes to gain distance from the fury of attacks that got unleashed onto him.

"Your ambitions will end today." Hiruzen growled and summoned two shadow clones to corner Orochimaru at the earth wall he had created in his fight against the Shodaime.

Hissing and spitting curses the Sannin forced his damaged arms into Taijutsu moves to block the hits from the clones, but suddenly found himself unable to move any longer and the clones to retreat.

The horse mask wearing Anbu had caught him in his Mind Destruction Jutsu and prevented him from evading the next attack. Because Tora had his sword firmly grasped with his two hands and with all his strength swung it in a chopping motion, the sharp blade digging into the burned flesh of the Sannin's arms, the bone proved to be too little of a resistance against the force put into this strike.

The Snake cried out in pain as his left arm got severed from the middle of his lower arm, the disembodied limb landing on the ground in a pool of its own blood.

"Orochimaru-sama!" Sakon shouted.

"We retreat." the injured Sannin barked at his subordinates as he tried to stop the bleeding with his hand while evading further sword strikes and attacks. He had been able to break the Yamanaka Anbu's jutsu before the other could also severe his right arm but the damage was enough for him to realize that this battle was lost.

"You're not getting away!" Tora exclaimed and moved to follow the Snake but, being already tired and low on chakra from the battle, got easily outpaced by the four oto-nin. The six-armed shinobi spew a net in his direction which caught both him and Ouma, as the horse mask wearing Anbu was again following him like a shadow.

Hiruzen watched the enemy shinobi get away, too tired to try and follow them. Again he wasn't able to kill his former student but at least he was able to end his evil doings when his subordinates successfully severed the nukenin's arm thus rendering him unable to use his beloved jutsus ever again.

A victorious grin appeared on his face as he fell to his knees, all chakra used up and the wound on his chest where the sword had struk him still bleeding.

The last thing he took note of were the worried shouts of his people and the blurred forms of Konoha shinobi that were supporting his body and tending to his wounds, before his sight became black and he slipped away into unconsciousness.

* * *

~End of Chapter

* * *

You won't believe it how hard it was to prevent the Sound Four from making the barrier (how it was planned at first). The result was, I couldn't prevent them! Yes Orochimaru actually outsmarted me, the almighty authoress, the one who wrote this damn plot! Damn you, stupid Snake! *shakes fist*

And yes, I got lazy with all the dialogue, sue me.

As you could read, I did my best to save the Hokage, but there are so many future plot points dependent on this fight (Tsunade as Godaime, mastering the Rasengan, Itachi-Sasuke bonding time, Sasuke retrieval, etc) and I didn't want to go completely AU at this point of the story so... yeah. That's the crappy result I came up with.

And I love writing Anbu. So much potential!

I fear that Orochimaru became too much OOC and maybe too weak in this fight but it was important to "steal" his arms for the above mentioned reasons. So my result wasn't ideal but it was the best I could come up with without killing off Sarutobi...

That's all I have to say for now, hopefully next chapter won't take so long to write.

PS: I was at my very first anime convention... Best. Time. Of my life!


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